Some Kind of Hero
by SatanSpeaks
Summary: The Boys are going to be heroes, and there's nothing the Girls can do to stop them. Why does a hero do what they do anyway? Money. Recognition. Fun. Need. Habit. Passion. (Eventual Reds, Greens, Blues)
1. God Damn Heroes

**Disclaimer**: I do not own the Powerpuff Girls. The plot points and ideas in this fic also don't belong to me.

* * *

**Chapter 1**

**God Damn Heroes**

**Sophomore Year - September**

Buttercup crashed through a skyscraper. Shattered glass rained onto the panicking people below. Brick smirked. Soon the precious Powerpuff Girls would be defeated. Everything was going according to plan.

"How much do you think that's going to cost? A few hundred thousand, maybe a million?" he asked.

The tiny mayor was still. Brick had to give him credit, the man stayed cool under pressure.

"Probably twenty casualties. Maybe a death or two."

The mayor held his ground. "I have faith in the Powerpuff Girls."

"Girl," Brick corrected him. "Bubbles is down, Buttercup is down, Blossom is the last one left."

Below them, the lone superhero flew in circles, desperately trying to keep a colossal squid from destroying any more of Townsville. Blossom was tired, probably low on X. She hadn't made a single offensive maneuver since she lost Bubbles. She was buying time, waiting for her sisters to recover.

They had started the fight using their standard tactics, surrounding the squid and trying to knock it around. Its flesh absorbed the impact of their punches and kicks, all they ended up doing was make it jiggle. It was like trying to pop a balloon by hitting it with a baseball bat, they couldn't deliver enough force to actually damage it. Meanwhile, it could easily fight off each girl with two arms and still had four to spare.

Blossom had used her ice breath to try to slow it down. Too bad for her it was an Antarctic Flying Squid, it loved the cold. And at over 80 stories tall, it was way too big to completely encase in ice. Blossom's powers were totally ineffective.

Blossom had ordered Bubbles to waste her energy forming force fields to protect the town. But even Bubbles' mastery of force fields couldn't block that many tentacles at once. For each building she saved, another fell victim to the squid's wild flailing. It got the message quickly and slithered a tentacle around her waist. The long and slimy limb constricted, cutting off her air supply until she fell unconscious.

It took everything Buttercup had to free her sister, but between her heat vision, raw strength, and more than a little biting, she got it done.

After she flew Bubbles to a roof to recover, Buttercup got the genius idea to ram it as fast and as hard as she could, despite Blossom shouting orders to stop. For some reason related to coming straight at a target that could see all the way around itself, Buttercup's "plan" didn't work. It slammed her through several buildings. And while Brick would give her credit for being tough, even she could only take so much.

Now, Blossom was all alone, fighting a war of attrition, one she would lose. She put up her own force field in an effort to stop the squid from destroying any more buildings. At least Buttercup had tried something. Someone should have taught Blossom what constituted the best defense.

Despite the chaos outside, the mayor's luxury office on the top story of Townsville city hall was quiet and clean. The window's thick glass muffled the screams and explosions below. A speaker on the mayor's desk softly played Delibes' Flower Duet. The music transformed the battle into a graceful dance.

The office was huge, about the same size as the abandoned warehouse Brick and his brothers had been living in, and it was much nicer. On one end, the mayor had an antique mahogany desk that must have been lifted in by a crane. A nearby refreshments table served coffee, tea, sparkling water, and an assortment of pastries. Butch had one in his mouth and one in each hand. The office was so big, it had two separate sitting areas. One must have been for decoration. Boomer looked up from the brown leather couch for a moment before going back to his phone, the hood of his sweatshirt over his head.

Brick should have felt envious of the man standing next to him watching the battle. He should have wanted to steal that taxpayer-funded luxury the mayor enjoyed. Instead, he was inspired. He was going to earn his own mahogany desk.

"Mayor," Mrs. Bellum spoke up. "Perhaps we should consider their offer." She placed a pen next to his copy of their contract. "The terms they are offering are quite generous."

"I don't care about terms. Those girls have protected this city for ten years." He took a bite of the pickle he was eating. "It doesn't matter how badly they get hurt, they always get back up again and find a way to win."

Mrs. Bellum gave him a dirty look behind his back. Something must have struck a nerve. She turned to Brick, not bothering to remove her glare. "You will make every effort to protect the town and minimize injury and damage?"

"We will do everything within our ability to protect the city in the case of a Class Two or higher monster attack as defined in Appendix One," Brick recited. "All collateral damage caused is subject to your review, but 'fault' shall be determined by precedent in past cases involving the Powerpuff Girls." That last bit constituted a total release of liability. The Powerpuff Girls were never held liable for anything while fighting threats to the city. There had been several cases. Of course, Mrs. Bellum had to know that.

"And you will cease any and all illegal activities immediately and never use your abilities to participate in criminal activity."

"As long as you're paying us, we will have no reason to commit crimes." The realization took Brick longer than he cared to admit. They didn't have to be evil, if such a concept existed. Which it didn't. Of course it didn't, don't be stupid. No. They only called him evil because he didn't like people telling him what to do, that was it.

'Breaking the law' was a matter of perspective anyway. The puny humans clung to their precious law as if it could save them. But it was designed by those in power, to serve those in power. It wasn't 'breaking the law' when someone in power stole something or even killed someone. And Brick planned on getting a lot of power.

"And all it will cost the city is $10,000 per incident?" Bellum asked. She had honed in on the three most important points of their agreement. If only it could be that simple. The contract was a full 22-pages long, single-spaced.

"Or $10,000 per month to keep us on retainer in the case of no incidents," Brick said. "And that's after federal, state, and local taxes are deducted." He had them right where he wanted them. It was the perfect deal. He and his brothers would finally get paid to do what they were good at. And best of all, it was legit. Hell, they'd be heroes. As if soldiers, firefighters, and police officers didn't get paid. Why not them too? God-damn heroes.

"Mayor, the answer is obvious," Mrs. Bellum said. "We should sign immediately."

"I still think Blossom can beat this thing," the mayor said. His attention focused on the redheaded teenager below.

Blossom went low and projected a force-field to block a stray tentacle from crushing a nearby garbage truck. The pink streak of light easily got the monster's attention. When she stopped moving for a moment, a beam of light shot out of the monster's huge eye.

Blossom matched it with her own eye beams. Her thin and extremely concentrated beams cut through the squid's wide and diffuse beam. She sliced all the way to its eye before she had to stop. It recoiled in pain.

Blossom wheezed through her teeth, her fists clenched, and her knees buckled. The fight was over. She scowled at the squid, as if a dirty look alone could bring a monster down.

A tentacle whipped around and slapped her down 5th Avenue.

Blossom's shoulder carved a trench through the asphalt. She knocked through streetlights and brought down telephone poles on her journey, and finally came to a stop when her body totaled an 18-wheeler.

"And that's at least a million more in repairs," Brick said. "You could have saved the city 99% by signing with us."

"Wow," Butch said with a mouth full of food. "You're really bad at your job."

"Butch brings up an interesting point," Brick said. "When do you think the voters are going to recall you for negligence?"

"Get up, Blossom," the mayor murmured.

With his telescopic vision, Brick could see she wasn't moving. She wasn't dead, it would take more than that to kill Blossom, Brick knew that from experience. But she also wasn't getting up any time soon. The mayor expected an explosion of pink, green, and blue light, and the girls would come together and beat the thing. He was going to be disappointed. All three Powerpuffs were out of commission. The mayor had no choice but to sign.

Brick had to act on this new information. He took a pen and began marking on the two copies of their contract on the conference table. "The new figure is 20,000 per incident."

The mayor was unaffected, but Bellum was angry. "Mayor!"

"All right! All right! I'll sign!" He snatched a fancy pen from his desk and signed both copies.

"Please also initial that you agree to the new figure."

The mayor scribbled at Brick's new terms. "Yes, yes, just take care of it."

"We're always happy to help." Brick smiled as he took his copy of the contract. "Butch! Boomer! Let's go!"

"Finally!" Butch took one last bite. Boomer sighed and put his phone back into his pocket.

The three guys flew out the door to the mayor's private balcony. Outside, the air was heavy with smoke and the smell of rotting seafood. Brick held his brothers back while he came up with tactics that would actually work.

"All we gotta do is hit it." Butch dug his fist into his palm.

"No. The girls already tried that, it's too squishy."

Butch twitched. "Like a boob-!"

"Keep its arms stunned!" Brick should have known Butch was going to turn whatever he said into innuendo, the juvenile prick. It truly was the lowest form of humor. "We're going to make it back up into that block of buildings it already destroyed, then we hit it with everything we have. Boomer, make it swing and miss. I'll make sure it only has one direction to go. And no causing any damage. We're 'good' now."

Butch snorted and Boomer rolled his eyes. The boys took off and went to work.

Boomer zipped around in front of the squid getting its attention. It swung right through him. He dodged with a flash of light, rolling his eyes again at how slow it was. That kid was going to sprain his face if he kept that up.

While Boomer had it distracted, instead of doing as Brick had instructed, Butch flew right up to its eye and punched it as hard as he could. A ripple moved through the squid, causing no other reaction. Just as Brick had told him, the force of the blow was totally absorbed by its rubbery guts. And they called Boomer the dumb one.

The squid grabbed Butch with one of its tentacles. Damn thing was as thick as a city bus. His arms were pinned by the suckers on the underside.

Butch struggled to free himself. Then, a smile crept across his face as he got a brilliant idea. His eyes glowed brighter and he shot his eye beams right into the tentacle. The stunning effect of Butch's eye beams on the squid's nervous system only made it involuntarily squeeze harder. Butch yelled for mercy.

Brick sighed. He had hung out relatively close, watching the scene play out, but taking no action. Sometimes the only way his idiot brothers ever learned was to try something and get hurt a few times. It couldn't be helped.

His hand pulled back and he launched a fireball at the offending tentacle. The explosion made it loosen its grip. Butch broke free while the meat burned to a crisp.

The squid eyed Brick carefully as he rose into the air. He knew what was coming. "Boomer! Lightning in three!"

The squid unleashed its eye beam at Brick. Instead of meeting it with his own eye beams like a novice, Brick broke north as fast as he could.

"Two!"

The white beam cut across the sky in a chase.

"One!"

Before it hit Brick, a lightning bolt discharged from Boomer's fingers. The squid let loose a muffled scream. It flailed it's tentacles in all directions. One of the big ones cut through a skyscraper.

Brick winced. He didn't mean for that to happen. Sure, the Powerpuffs had let the damn thing raze seven buildings to the ground, but Brick held himself and his brothers to a higher standard. The top twelve stories listed off the main structure and Butch was floating there like an idiot who didn't know what to do.

"Butch! Catch the building!"

"For real?"

"Yes, for real! Make sure no one gets hurt!"

Butch groaned as he went to save the tower.

"Boomer, hit it with everything you've got."

Boomer let loose a barrage of eye beams that exploded on the squid's face. Brick's streams of fire kept it from attacking to its sides. It used its tentacles to block and slithered back through its path of destruction.

After several minutes Brick's joints were burning, but they had successfully chased the squid away from anything intact.

Butch appeared at Brick's side holding a steel girder. "I got an idea."

Brick knew where he was going with it. Using the girder to impale the squid, honestly, wasn't a bad plan. "Where's the building?"

Butch cocked his head at Brick. "The what?"

"The building I told you to save."

A look of recognition passed over Butch's face. "Oh that. I didn't know what to do with it, so I left it in the park."

Brick shook his head. Good enough. "We kill it here."

Boomer narrowed his eyes and hit it with another lightning bolt.

Butch flew up high, raising the girder over his head. He swung it down with as much force as he could and brought the blunt edge onto the squid's head.

The squid's body squished around the incoming object, filling the sides of its head with whatever was inside. But the skin didn't break. The girder bounced back up like it had hit a trampoline and launched out of Butch's hands. He brought his fingers to his mouth in confusion.

Brick caught Butch's eyes, making sure his brother knew Brick thought he was an idiot. "Blunt force is useless. Use-Less!" He dashed away to catch the girder in midair, used his eyebeams to grind it into a point, and used a stream of fire from his other hand to heat it.

The squid started moving again, flailing tentacles around, and reaching for buildings it hadn't destroyed yet. Boomer hammered it with electricity and his eye beams, but he needed help.

"Keep it where it is, Butch," Brick ordered.

Butch, needing no further prompting, jetted into the squid and grabbed it. The idiot was actually going to try to wrestle it. Brick had wanted him to use his eye beams to stun it so it couldn't move, but Butch always had to do things the hard way. The squid grabbed at him right back. Brick would have to save him again.

This time Butch deftly maneuvered through the constraining mass. He pulled one tentacle over another and around again, tying some of them together.

When the girder had a sharp tip and was hot enough to glow slightly, Brick flew over the writhing monster and threw it like a javelin, straight down.

The girder pierced all the way through the monster and embedded into the rubble below, staking it to the ground. Butch pulled on the tentacle knot as hard as he could, stretching the squid out like a rubber band. They had the perfect target for Boomer.

Boomer collected energy into his eyes and blasted the squid apart. Viscera splattered over everything in a one block radius. What was left of the monster laid in a heap, finally dead. The Rowdyruff Boys admired their work.

"We're done now, right?" Boomer asked.

"We get paid now, right?" Butch followed up.

Before he could say anything, Blossom sped at Brick, coming within an inch of his face. He didn't flinch. Buttercup and Bubbles came in right behind her, fists clenched for a fight. It was all a show to look tough. They weren't going to do jack shit.

"What are you guys doing here?" Blossom hissed. He loved it when she was mad.

"Hey, Butterbabe." Butch leered at Buttercup.

Buttercup rolled her eyes and pouted.

"Hey Boomer," Bubbles said with cheer.

Boomer's sour expression dropped for a moment. "...hey..."

The six of them stood off against each other like they had so many times before. If they started fighting, Brick knew who the winners would be. The girls were beaten raw from their earlier fight, all still low on X.

"Well?" Blossom narrowed her eyes at them.

His younger self would have beat her up right then and there to show her who's boss. But he was older, too mature to start a schoolyard scuffle. They weren't going to fight. That might constitute breach of contract with the city, and Brick wasn't going to give them any way out. He was going to get his $20,000 and everything that came after.

Brick crossed his arms over his chest. "We did what you couldn't."

"You guys beat the monster?" Blossom asked.

"Holy shit, they did." Buttercup looked over the carcass.

"We're heroes now," Butch said. " I saved a whole building full of people."

"What?" Buttercup said. "Yeah right."

"We have a contract with the city and everything," Brick retorted.

Blossom turned her nose up. "Why should we believe you?"

"You shouldn't," Brick said. "You should sit back and enjoy the parade."

"The what!?"

"Congratulations, Rowdyruff Boys!" The mayor appeared with Mrs. Bellum and a marching band. He handed Brick a golden key to the city. "The day is saved thanks to you."

"What!?"

* * *

**Kindergarten**

Brick rolled his eyes. Bubbles had spray-painted 'Flowers are pretty'. Who did she think she was fooling anyway?

"What is that?" he asked.

Bubbles realized her mistake and quickly added 'dumb!' to keep up her charade. How _dumb_ did she think he was?

He wanted to beat her up some more for thinking he was so stupid, giving her a black eye wasn't satisfying enough any more. It had already healed anyway. Without her sisters, he and Butch could massacre her, and Brick was planning on it, but he wanted to mess with her a little more first.

"For a second there I thought you were turnin' girly on us," Butch said.

Brick looked at his own graffiti. There were a few messed up words in it. Of course, that was the best way to do graffiti. If all the words were right, they might as well have gone to some sissy tea party. But Bubbles didn't know that. She couldn't know any of that. She was a girl, and girls didn't know about anything cool.

"Yeah, and 'Dum-buh'?" Brick said, "Jeez Boomer, If you're gonna do graffiti at least spell the words right."

Butch laughed along like he got the joke, he was such an idiot. He didn't even know 'dumb' had a silent 'B' on the end. He thought it really was spelled 'dum'.

Bubbles looked at him expressionless. She didn't get that he was making fun of Butch either. She probably thought he was the dumb one, not even knowing he was making fun of how she had done graffiti wrong in the first place. He knew the Powerpuffs had a moronic sibling too.

Brick laughed to himself. It was the best joke in the world because he was making fun of two people for two different things at once by saying only one thing.

"Sheesh! Talk about dum-Buh!" he added, to rub it in. He was so much smarter than they were. He was probably even the smartest. Brick was satisfied with the knowledge that his intellect couldn't possibly be understood by lesser minds.

"Yeah, what a 'dum-Bee', Butch said.

Brick had to laugh, that was actually funny. Butch may have been an idiot, but he always did have a talent for making fun of people.

He was totally going to force Bubbles to eat a cockroach once he found one.


	2. An Actual Hero

**Chapter 2**

**An Actual Hero**

**Sophomore Year - September**

Blossom was tired, bruised, her head pounded, her clothes were dirty, and now she had to deal with this quandary. Bubbles zipped away to perform her after-battle ritual and Buttercup started a staring contest with a snickering Butch.

Brick took the key to the city from the mayor and pumped his fist into the air for the crowd that had gathered. It had to be a trick. At any moment he was going to grab the mayor by the throat and shoot his eyebeams at innocent people. He was evil, plain and simple. Blossom had to be ready.

A news crew was filming the scene and a reporter ran up to Brick with a microphone. "This is Stacy Larson with Channel 5 News. Just minutes ago, Townsville was under siege by a colossal squid, one so massive, even the Powerpuff Girls couldn't defeat it. But now, it lays dead, in a shocking twist of events, defeated by Townsville villains, the Rowdyruff Boys. I'm here with the Rowdyruff leader. Brick, do you have anything to say?"

Brick looked bewildered at the microphone that was thrust in his face for a quarter second. Then his mouth made a half smile and his eyes did a half-lidded gaze. He was trying to look like a confident hero with a dash of vulnerability. Every petty expression was a bald-faced lie.

"We took care of the squid and will continue to protect the city from any monster attacks. Townsville can rest easy."

Blossom sneered. She couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"The Rowdyruff Boys have terrorized Townsville for the last decade. Can the people trust you to act in our best interest?" the reporter asked. Finally someone was asking the right questions. Though, it wasn't how Blossom would have worded it. It was so diplomatic, she may as well have given him the right answer in the first place.

Brick covered his mouth as if he was deep in thought. "We have a past," he admitted. "Pushed to the edge because of our financial situation. We didn't grow up with parents, no one to teach us what was right or wrong." A lie, Blossom had described right and wrong to him and his brothers on several occasions. All they did was laugh and yell at her to shut up. "Never knowing where our next meal was coming from." Also a lie. Their meals came from the mouths of whoever they came across. Whatever they wanted, they took. "But now, we're using our talents to assist the city. I think we deserve a second chance."

That wasn't an apology. He couldn't rewrite the story. His list of crimes included grand larceny, vandalism, and several cases of assault and battery. Surely the reporter was going to bring that up.

"A true tale of tragedy and redemption," the reporter remarked.

Blossom couldn't believe what she was hearing. He was evil. So what if he did one good thing? Evil doesn't change, it becomes more subtle, more sinister. How could they all fall for it so easily?

"Blossom, have you heard the good news?" The mayor asked.

Blossom didn't want to hear it from him. "Mom?"

Behind the mayor, Mrs. Bellum took a deep breath to compose herself. "The mayor signed a contract and I agreed their terms are very fair." She offered a stack of paper to Blossom, knowing she'd want to read it for herself.

Blossom snatched the contract out of Mrs. Bellum's hand and began reading. "They've been pardoned for all of their past crimes!?"

Mrs. Bellum didn't react. Blossom usually admired her decorum, but she was outraged. And the fact that the woman whom she had thought of as her mother had nothing to say only annoyed her.

Blossom growled and her eyes scanned over the rest of the first page, too angry to actually read it. "Why wasn't I consulted?"

"Because you were busy fighting the monster." Blunt, but Blossom didn't detect that patronizing tone for which Mrs. Bellum was famous.

"We could have handled it, and now the city owes the Rowdyruff Boys $20,000 plus applicable taxes."

"The mayor only signed because all three of you were unconscious. He thought you were going to beat it."

They should have beaten it. They did everything right. The squid was a challenge, it had certain immunities she had neglected to account for. But Blossom thrived on challenges and she would have overcome this one, the same as all the others. If she had done a little better, if Bubbles and Buttercup had fought a little harder, they could have beaten it before Brick and his brothers got to it. She closed her eyes.

Mrs. Bellum put a hand on her daughter's shoulder. "Sweetie, you did everything you could to save the city and we would have been doomed long ago without you."

Blossom couldn't bear to look at her mom, knowing she had failed. Her body shook and she couldn't swallow the lump in her throat. It built until it choked her.

"I'm glad you're okay." Blossom's mom took her into her arms and held her for a while. "I thought I was going to lose you this time," she whispered. Showing affection was a politically risky move with all the cameras around. Blossom shivered in her mother's warmth, her heart quaking.

"Boom!" Butch's loud regaling to the reporter interrupted Blossom's moment. "And Brick was like 'Save that building!' And I was like 'No problem!' And I saved the building, and then wrestled the giant squid to the ground. It was awesome."

"It sounds awesome. There you have it, from a Rowdyruff Boy himself. Looks like Townsville just got little rowdier. I'm Stacy Larson. Back to you, Tom."

Buttercup had her arms crossed and her head tilted, staring Butch. Anyone else may have interpreted her stance as placid, practically curious. But Blossom knew when her sister was on-edge. At least one of Blossom's sisters understood what a threat the Rowdyruffs were.

Bubbles only then appeared in a new outfit and her hair and makeup redone. Every time they might be on camera after a fight, she went all the way home and got ready all over again. She wouldn't allow herself to not look cute on camera. She never took anything seriously.

Boomer was off on the periphery of the action. His shoulders were slumped, and his hands were in his sweatshirt pocket. Not much of a threat, but still.

Blossom kept her focus on Brick, she had a job to do. He was talking to the mayor. Then they shook hands.

Blossom's mom observed the scene with her. "Brick may be a pompous brat, but he's far from the worst I've ever met. Have you ever been to a Chamber of Commerce Meeting? It's a den of snakes, sharks, and rats."

Brick and the mayor approached them. "It's settled," the mayor said. "From now on the Rowdyruff Boys will take down any monsters attacking Townsville, leaving the Powerpuff Girls free to focus specifically on crime."

Mrs. Bellum was wrong. He was the worst, even comparing him to a rat was too gracious. Brick was a literal demon.

"I need to get back to work, sweetie," Mrs. Bellum said, checking her schedule. "But I promise I'll be home for dinner." She joined the mayor in a waiting limousine and they drove off.

Reconstruction crews got to work restoring the town and the crowd dispersed. The guys flew away in a triumphant blast and Blossom let out a breath. They didn't attack this time. For the first time in her life, she felt like she didn't understand the world.

* * *

Upon arriving at home, Buttercup immediately peeled off her crop top and left her dirty boots in the middle of the living room. "So what if they beat the fucking squid, it doesn't mean anything."

Blossom tried to ignore the mess, she fully understood Buttercup's state of mind. "I know! 'Townsville can rest easy'? What, did he rehearse that line?" She sat at the dining room table. She set her copy of the contract down, though it hurt her eyes to look at it. The sheer fact that they got the mayor to sign the document was nefarious enough.

Bubbles hung in Blossom's orbit, like an itch she couldn't scratch. She wasn't bothering to actually read anything or even sit down. "What does it say?" Bubbles asked.

Blossom huffed. She always had to do all the work. "It says they have to respond to any class two or higher monster attack in a timely manner."

Bubbles still looked confused. "...And what's a class two?"

"Anything bigger than 10 feet," Buttercup said getting a box of cheese crackers out of the pantry. "Shit, Bubs. You've been a superhero all your life. How do you not know that?"

"It's not like we take classes on how big monsters are, Buttercup."

"What about zombies?" Buttercup asked, munching on her crackers. She had a point, a zombie horde was a real threat in Townsville.

Blossom began to quote from the contract. "Any city-threatening, non-monster related incidents such as alien invasions and/or an army of rampaging monkey-geniuses are subject to the standard surcharge." It was written in legal language as dictated by a child, someone knows to use the word 'surcharge' but doesn't know what it really means. "In the case of zombies or other 'infection-based threats'..." Blossom flipped to the back and absorbed the information silently while Bubbles and Buttercup waited.

"...Only if the attack constitutes a minimum of 500 individuals. And worse, they reserve the right to 'dispose of' the infected and refuse to attempt to locate a cure."

"So there's a whole zombies section?" Buttercup asked.

"Appendix Three." It was barely most of a page. Again, the author understood contracts have appendices, but obviously didn't know what they're for.

"That it?" Buttercup asked, throwing herself onto the sofa.

"They have to stop all criminal activity."

"Hold on. All? As in, we never get to fight them again?"

"We never have to fight them again?" Bubbles asked. "Blossom, this is good news. No more monster guts on my cheerleading uniform. No more 3AM calls disturbing my beauty sleep. I say let the boys take care of it."

"Uhh, Why don't we get paid to save the city?" Buttercup asked.

"Buttercup!?" Blossom couldn't believe what she was hearing.

"What? It sounds like a good idea."

"We're the good guys."

"Yeah, well, its not like that seems to matter to anyone else." Buttercup shoveled a handful of crackers into her mouth. "I wonder if they've got an open spot."

"Buttercup," Blossom stood up from the table and gathered the contract. She needed to regain a sense of control in her life. "Clean this mess before mom and dad get home," she said, referring to Buttercup's discarded boots. She went up to her room to finish her homework.

* * *

Blossom thought a good night's sleep would make her feel better. It didn't. She woke up apprehensive about the day, but it turned out to be a pretty normal Monday, teachers loaded her down with busy work, the kids were annoying, and the girls fawned all over Brick.

"I saw your interview on the news. You looked so hot," Blossom heard some random girl say from across the forum during lunch.

He gave her his 'I'm too cool for any of this' smirk. A typical day at Townsville High School.

Robin was talking about something while Blossom could only give shallow agreements. Her mind was somewhere else.

All that distance between them was nothing. She felt Brick's stare from across the hall. He was sitting on a table, like he was playing 'the rebel'. He thought he was so cool. They might as well have been an inch apart. It wasn't all the time, but she could feel his eyes on her. Whenever she tried to catch him looking, he pretended to be talking to his friends. He had that stupid smirk on his face and he was doing that thing with his eyes, like he was better than her.

"Blossom, may I speak with you?" Dexter asked in that strange accent he never lost. He was holding a lunch tray and Blossom hoped he wasn't planning on sitting with her.

"Yes, what is it?"

"I wanted to speak with you about our project." Blossom had chosen Dexter as her science lab partner specifically because he also wanted to get their semester project started early. If it were anyone else, she would have had to do all the work herself while they procrastinated until December.

Dexter glanced at her chest. "Perhaps we could brainstorm ideas in my lab."

"There's no need." Blossom pulled out her phone. "I'm emailing you a list of ideas. Let me know which one you like best."

"Ahh, yes," he said, pulling out his own phone and perusing the list. "I will make my decision later today." Just what she needed, a big strong man to make a decision for her. "Good day, Blossom."

Blossom inwardly rolled her eyes. "Good day, Dexter." After he was gone, she sighed and stirred her salad, getting that feeling again.

This time he wasn't trying to hide it. He was looking right at her, snickering. Brick's smile widened when Blossom's glare hardened.

She suddenly lost her appetite, stood up and picked up her bag. "We need more pre-SAT prep," Blossom explained. "Let's go to the library."

Robin looked at her confused. "O- Okay." Robin got to her feet and followed.

Brick was such a contemptuous brigand, she couldn't take being in the same room as him for long. Especially if she would have to put up with his presence in her afternoon classes.

Walking through the halls toward the library, Blossom discovered Butch talking to Mitch Mitchelson and floating up in the air, a clear violation of school rules. There was a special clause that banned any use of superpowers on school grounds. While she wanted to call him out on it, she also wanted to walk by, unaccosted, for once.

"Hey Robin," Butch said as they passed. "Love your new hairstyle."

Robin began to glow. "Thank you!" She gave him the biggest smile Blossom had ever seen, and she blushed, she actually blushed, at a Rowdyruff boy. "What are you up to this weekend?"

Butch chanced a look at Blossom then his eyes went right back to Robin. "I was telling Mitch, party at our place Saturday night. You should come."

"I'd love to come!" Robin brushed her hair behind her ear.

"It's on the corner of Service and Paradise."

Robin typed the directions into her phone to get the address. Mitch smiled, moving around them to block their exit.

While they didn't constitute a threat, it was highly annoying. "No flying at school, Butch."

Butch scoffed. "No can do, Pinky. We got carte blanche from the mayor to use our powers all we want." He flexed.

Blossom rolled her eyes. "Do you even know what 'carte blanche' means?"

"Nope, Brick said it," Butch said. "And Robin, feel free to bring whoever you want,"

Robin giggled and held her phone to her chest. Blossom groaned and pulled Robin away. They blew through Mitch.

"Later, Robin." Butch said, then he looked right at Blossom. She bristled at his gaze. "You too Blossom."

"I can't believe you did that," Blossom said when they finally got out of earshot.

"It's a little harmless flirting." Robin stared at her phone.

Harmless? Blossom knew where the Rowdyruff Boys lived. "Yet, you're going into that neighborhood alone?"

"Rowdyruff parties are legendary, Blossom." Not that Robin had ever been to one, Blossom noted. It was a cluster of stories people told each other, each one more overblown than the last.

"Then why have I never attended one?"

"Because you hate parties."

"The same people standing around, doing the same thing as they do here, plus drinking."

"That's not what happens at parties."

Blossom was going to respond, but she spotted Jared Shapiro standing outside the library holding his clarinet, probably on a break from band rehearsal. He gave her a shy wave.

Robin giggled. "I'll see you inside."

Blossom trotted up to him and wrapped her arms around his shoulders. "Hello Jared." She kept herself so busy, that was the first chance they had to see each other since the day before. He had a later lunch period being a senior while Blossom was only a sophomore.

"Blossom, my dear, my heart ached at not seeing you," Jared sang in his tenor. He was Blossom's antidote, sweet, humble, and gentle. Everything Brick wasn't. The perfect thing to cure her of his ubiquity.

Blossom pulled her boyfriend over to the grass where they could sit and enjoy the day. She fell into him, feeling like she could finally relax.

Boomer played hacky sack with a circle of people a few trees over. No matter what she did, she couldn't escape them. Blossom bristled at the thought.

"What's wrong, dear?" He could tell something was bothering her. Jared always was so caring and empathetic.

Blossom sighed. "The Rowdyruff Boys beat that giant squid yesterday. And for that one thing, the mayor not only pardoned them of all their crimes, he paid them too."

"He paid them?" Jared exclaimed aghast. "A superhero would never accept payment for saving the day. The gratification of the citizens is payment enough."

"Right! I do it for that feeling of accomplishment." An honest answer, Blossom felt like she was forgetting something. "I'm honored to protect this city and its people." She didn't forget, it wasn't that she didn't feel honored. But all the praise she had been given all her life started to ring hollow now that they were giving it to literal villains. The people had turned on them so quickly.

"That's because you're an actual hero." Jared smiled at her. "At least you'll have more time to study from now on."

Blossom fumed. "I don't want more time to study."

"I'm sorry. You're right. But what can you do..."

What could she do against a rampaging super villain? Stay the course. The Rowdyruff Boys couldn't do half of what Blossom and her sisters did for more than a month. Whenever they gave up or got bored, the Powerpuff Girls would be there.

"Thank you, Jared." Their conversation steeled Blossom's resolve.

* * *

After debate practice Blossom's phone vibrated. [Grocery Store Robbery at 7th and Mission] She sped to the site without joining up with Bubbles and Buttercup. Bubbles let herself get distracted, and Buttercup didn't hurry unless it was something big. But Blossom was hyperfocused, she could handle a routine robbery by herself.

She hit the parking lot running and was inside the store within seconds of getting the text. All the patrons had huddled in the back, their groceries abandoned in their carts wherever they were left. All the cash registers were open and the robber pointed a pistol at the cashiers while they put the money from their tills in a burlap shopping bag.

One cashier's hands shook and she couldn't remember the sequence of buttons to open her till. The scumbag pushed the barrel of his gun into her temple.

Faster than the criminal could possibly react, Blossom drove at him, ripping the pistol out of his hand and throwing him to the ground.

After an exhale, her silent victory fanfare, she checked on the shocked cashier. "He can't hurt you anymore."

The woman backed away from her and tried to crawl under her check stand. She must have still been in shock from the robbery.

"Are you okay?"

Again, no answer. The cashier opened and closed her mouth like she was trying to say something, but couldn't.

Other people spoke for her. "Oh my god!"

"Is he dead?"

"Call an ambulance!"

Confused, Blossom looked at where the robber went. His body had broken through the window at the front of the store and crashed on the pavement. Blood pooled between the bits of broken glass.

Blossom couldn't resolve what she was seeing. Why would he jump through the glass? He could have tried to run out the door if he was so desperate to escape.

The obvious answer was that he didn't. Then why was the window broken? And why was everyone giving her funny looks? Shouldn't they be congratulating her?

Blossom's shoulder quivered, telling her she had used quite a bit of force. But it couldn't have been enough for a human body to shatter glass. Could it?

Blossom's heart pounded. Easily enough force. But that wasn't the story. There was the lady and the gun. And the look on the guy's face when he pushed it into her head, eyes filled with anger. Blossom had to do something.

"Wouldn't want to be that guy."

Blossom's rage spiked. "What are you doing here?"

Brick smirked that stupid smirk. "I got a call about a possible monster attack." He hooked his thumbs into the pockets of his jeans and inspected the scene.

She wanted to tell him off, but settled for keeping her composure.

"A robbery, huh. Looks like you took care of it." Blossom wanted to wipe that condescending smile off his face permanently. "Nice work."

Blossom growled. He wouldn't know the first thing about use of force. If Brick had to handle it, he would have killed the guy. No second thoughts, no remorse.

Brick strolled through the broken window and into the store. His shoes crunched the bits of glass.

An ambulance arrived along with police, a fire truck, and finally, her sisters.

"What happened here?" Buttercup asked.

"I foiled a robbery," Blossom said.

"By throwing a guy through a window?"

Bubbles turned toward her sister with a scolding look on her face. "Blossom, you could have killed him!"

"And he could have killed several people."

"We don't even know if the gun was loaded."

Blossom picked up the gun and pulled the slide back. A bullet popped out of the chamber. It landed on the pavement between Blossom and Bubbles, confirmation staring them both in the face.

"Well he probably wasn't planning on using it." Bubbles crossed her arms over her chest.

"That absolutely does not matter. He was holding it on someone. His finger could have slipped, he could have easily shot them by accident. It happens every single day."

That's right, the more she thought about it, the more Blossom understood that it wasn't excessive force at all. She did what she had to do to ensure the cashier's safety. Everyone could question her methods all they wanted, the results spoke for themselves.

Bubbles pouted in defeat and floated away. She'd eventually come to see Blossom was in the right.

"Hey," Buttercup said.

"What?"

"We don't use super-strength on normal people. You know, the rules?"

Blossom sighed. As she remembered, it was her rule. She knew it better than Buttercup did. Buttercup was the one who had the problem following the rules.

"What's wrong?"

"Why does something have to be wrong?"

"'Cuz you threw a guy through a window. You don't do that unless it's Mojo or Brick."

Blossom looked hard at her sister. "It was the appropriate amount of force for the situation. Sometimes, criminals need to be thrown through windows."

Buttercup backed away. "Fine. Whatever you say." She flew back home.

Blossom stayed behind to make sure the police and paramedics were able to do their jobs in peace. Brick came back out of the store with a bag of junk food.

"Did you pay for that?" she asked.

Brick pulled out a receipt. "Yeah. We have enough money to buy our food now."

Blossom took it from him and used her her x-ray vision to ensure everything in the bag was on the receipt. "Once a criminal, always a criminal," she said, handing it back to him.

He didn't take it, the smug prick. He always thought he was better than her, better than everyone. He may have had the entire city fooled, but Blossom hadn't forgotten who he was and where he came from. "The instant you show your true colors, is the instant I put you back into that toilet you crawled out of." She narrowed her eyes at him.

That permanent smirk finally dropped off his face. "What?"

"You heard me."

Brick glared at her. "See you around, Blossom." He shot into the air with an annoying blast that swept through Blossom's hair. Soon, all that was left of him, was a red streak heading off to the industrial district.

Blossom's very own smirk crept over her face.

* * *

**Kindergarten**

Blossom bent down and picked up a piece of trash and deposited it into her bag. Her back ached and her hands were stiff. One of the other convicts had stolen her grabber, so she had to collect trash on the side of the highway by hand.

She supposed she deserved what she got as punishment for her crime. Not only had she stolen a very expensive set of golf clubs, she had tried to frame someone else for it. She had been sentenced to 200 hours of community service, a light sentence because of her history as a superhero.

There was an explosion somewhere ahead. Blossom tried to fly so she could save the day, but only succeeded in falling on her face. The Antidote X shot she had to get made it so she couldn't use her powers during community service. She sighed and cradled her knees.

"Back to work, number 31416." The supervising officer was referring to her.

Blossom got on her knees and picked up more trash while cars sped by. They were going so fast and she was so powerless. She had never been so afraid of them before.

The world had become so wrong since she got the shot. The pinprick in her arm didn't go away, it only dulled and spread, making her arm sore. She couldn't get a breath of fresh air and the world had turned fuzzy.

Green and blue streaks sped toward the disturbance. Blossom grimaced. She vowed to never have to sink that low again. Whatever people said was impossible, Blossom was going to do it. She would hold herself to the highest standards. She would be perfect from then on, not flawless, perfect.


	3. The Wild Card

**Chapter 3**

**The Wild Card**

**Sophomore Year - September**

Butch focused his vision on a glass bottle, his target. He wanted to make it harder for himself this time so he turned his head to another bottle he had set up further down range, and another positioned all the way behind him.

His eyes returned to the first one in preparation. Butch shot a quick eyebolt at it causing it to shatter. His head turned, his eyes focused, and he shattered the other. His head whipped around and he shot the last. "Pretty good, huh."

Boomer studied a concrete slab, then he backed away from it a few steps. A quick squint, and the blue beam came out of his eyes, exploding when it made contact with the slab. "Yeah."

Butch huffed while bits of concrete rained down on the empty lot. Boomer's eyebeams exploded when they hit something solid, Butch's didn't do that. But it wasn't like he was jealous. Training was stupid anyway. He understood why Brick told Boomer to train, the kid was too unfocused and couldn't throw a punch for shit. But Butch had already weight-trained for two hours that day with his powers off. The strain multiplied his gains when he used his super strength again.

Butch snorted. "I could'a have done worse with a single punch. But it's good to know you can keep up, even if you have to cheat."

Boomer grumbled, but Butch didn't care. "Let's go watch the game."

Butch and Boomer went back into the abandoned warehouse where they lived. They sat on their places on the couch they had found in the warehouse break room and Butch set his phone on the industrial spool they used as a coffee table and leaned it up against a broken piece of concrete. He put the football game on and settled in.

A reverberating thud and a series of loud bangs meant Brick was back. He made a quick jab at the wall. It crumbled, leaving a hole, there were a lot of those from fighting, celebrating too hard, and one big one in the back from that time Butch tackled Boomer through the wall.

Brick dumped a bag of snacks on the table and plopped down in his seat, a broken recliner they had picked up on the side of the road. Something had him in a bad mood.

Butch searched through the bags of chips, candy and sodas. "No beer?" It wasn't a celebration unless they had at least a six pack.

"No, I didn't steal you a fucking beer," Brick snapped.

"Dude, what got up your ass?"

Brick grit his teeth. "Some bullshit."

Butch munched on a bag of chips, Boomer played with his phone, and Brick stopped being so pissed off once Townsville scored a touchdown. The guys had always had a fondness for football, there was something about a game that involved slamming other guys to the ground that appealed to them.

"Pimentel is looking good now that the season's started," Brick said.

Butch snorted. "He only looks good 'cuz Vargas can catch garbage."

"You're both wrong." Boomer piped up even though he didn't know anything about football. "Our only touchdown is 'cuz of that guy, number 73."

"Who?" Butch asked.

"Number 73."

"What's his name?"

"I don't know any of their fucking names."

"You don't know any of their names?" Brick snickered.

"And I don't give a shit," Boomer said. "What's more important, their name or their number. Look at the fucking jersey, what's bigger? Which piece of information is on both the back and the front?"

Butch snorted. If Boomer didn't know who the players were, then he didn't care about the team. He was a fair-weather fan. At least he rooted for the Townsville X-ers. They were named that because the players didn't want to be called the Townsville Powerpuffs. The cheerleaders didn't mind though, and wore skimpy versions of the Powerpuff Girls' uniforms. Butch loved it when the cameras panned over them when they did their high kicks.

"That guy! Rankin! Fuck!" Boomer pointed to the screen.

"Rankin gets one touchdown and you think that means anything?" Butch said. "Vargas was a first-round draft pick."

"So the fuck what if he can't get himself out of coverage," Boomer said. "He can't do anything if the defense doesn't let him do anything."

"He does have a target on his back," Brick admitted.

Pimentel hiked the ball and lobbed it at Vargas early because his blockers were shit. Some asshole on the other team picked the ball right out of the air and ran toward the end zone.

"Fuck," Butch said. His brothers hung their heads.

Just before the player got to the end zone, he tripped and rolled past the line.

"Down at the one," Boomer said.

"Nah, that was a touchdown," Butch said, throwing a chip on the ground.

"No it wasn't. His elbow clearly touched the ground, then he literally rolled to the end zone. That means he was down."

"Nobody touched him," Butch explained. "That means he's not down."

"Oh yeah? Then how does a quarterback take a knee?"

"What?"

"Take a knee, dumbass. A quarterback wants to run out the clock. So he hikes the ball and touches his knee to the ground and he's down. So what, he's not down until someone touches him? Then why doesn't the defense spear him? Guy'd be a sitting duck."

No, Boomer was wrong. He had to be touched before he was down... But that was Boomer's point.

Butch remembered the week before, during the Townsville University game, when Bruin tripped 10-yards from the end zone. The other team hadn't touched him, but he didn't get to roll it in. He was down when he hit the ground.

Wait. Boomer was right? Boomer couldn't be right, not about football. That was impossible, he didn't even know any of the players' names. Butch's brain stopped working. The green of the turf and the blue of the jerseys swirled together and reality broke. The world was going to end. Rivers and seas boiling, forty years of darkness, volcanoes, the dead rising from the grave, human sacrifice, dogs and cats living together, mass hysteria! He closed his eyes trying to block it all out, his head quaked.

"That's called 'intentional grounding'," Brick explained. "You're confusing college rules with pro rules. In the pro league, they have to make contact, but the quarterback has the option to intentionally ground himself."

Butch let out a breath. The world made sense again. Boomer was wrong. Brick always made the world make sense.

"That's stupid." Boomer shot back. "The defense should spear him anyway."

"That would be a penalty, Boomer."

"Oh no, 15-yards for being able to knock out the quarterback for the rest of the season," Boomer said sarcastically. "I'm so scared."

"He'd definitely get suspended and fined."

"Then they should play the game instead of pulling bullshit like taking a knee." Boomer crossed his arms in a huff. "No guts, no glory, bitch."

Butch watched Pimentel set up for the next play. Boomer had a point, even Butch was fast enough to turn the guy to jelly before he could get his knee to the grass. Sometimes he wondered how he and Boomer could possibly be brothers, but there it was: the Rowdyruff killer instinct.

The game went to some old-man boner-pill commercial. Brick took their paycheck out of his pocket and a fancy pen he must have stolen from the mayor's office. He took out his phone and started doing his Brick stuff.

"Give me my cut, Brick." Butch said.

He took a picture of the check with his phone. "You don't get a cut yet."

"Why the fuck not!?"

He flipped the check over and signed the back. "Expenses."

"Expenses, like what?"

"We need a new apartment."

"What's wrong with this place?"

"It's a fucking toilet." Brick got up and flipped a light switch. Nothing happened. "No power." They had never had power before, and it didn't matter anyway. It's not like they couldn't see in the dark.

"No water either." He turned the faucet over a makeshift sink. Water came out.

Butch snorted. "There's water right there."

"I dare you to drink it, then." It was brownish, and probably had chunks of shit in it. Butch wasn't about to drink it.

"Even the bathrooms are shit holes."

"Bathrooms are supposed to be shit holes, Brick."

"There's no fucking shower."

"That's why we have the gym memberships." All three of them actually paid to use a gym. They worked out and showered there every day. And while they were working out, they charged their phones. Butch didn't see why that had to change, no matter what happened he was going to live at the gym.

"Shit Butch. I want to brush my fucking teeth without having to go to the gym. I don't want to wait at a laundromat all day to wash my fucking clothes."

Like guys had to wash their clothes. Butch had never washed his jeans and he was proud of it. "Come on, man. Where else can you put your own art on the walls?" He gestured to a concrete wall that said 'Butch' in spraypaint. He had worked really hard on it. He even got the green to fade into the black.

"Fuck that shit. Brick's right," Boomer said. "This place sucks."

"Ugh, fine," Butch said, clearly outnumbered.

"Do we want a two bedroom or three?" Brick asked, doing something on his phone.

"I don't want to have to share a room with Butch," Boomer said.

"Oh, we were never going to share a room. I'm gonna punch you and make you take the couch."

"And I'm not sharing the master," Brick said.

"Three then. Fuck."

"Alright, that's not going to be cheap. What else do you guys want."

"Downtown," Butch said. "Where the action is."

"It's probably a good idea to be close in case a monster attacks."

"I was thinking nightclubs, but yeah."

"Like they'd let you into a nightclub," Brick said.

"I don't want anyone complaining when I practice," Boomer added.

"Yeah, and no complaining when we have parties."

"No parties," Brick said.

Butch raised up into the air, aghast at the very suggestion. "No parties!?"

"No parties at the new place. I don't need the cops busting our door down. So we do like we do now and bring 'em here. Nobody's gonna take it when we leave. This place is a shithole, but it's our shithole. We can do whatever we want with it."

* * *

The next day, Brick let some realtor lady show them a bunch of apartments. They settled on a 3-bedroom on the 54th floor of a skyscraper. It was two stories, with two bedrooms downstairs and a loft upstairs with a master bedroom. It looked too expensive for Butch, but Brick said they could afford it.

"Here are the keys, Mr. Jojo." The realtor held out three keys on a ring for Brick to take.

"My name is not 'Brick Jojo'." Brick spoke through his teeth. Here we go with the same speech for the thousandth time. "My name is 'Brick'. No 'Jojo'. It is one word, a mononym."

He didn't address their relation to the ape, even though the volcano observatory was visible right through the window. Everybody in Townsville knew who Mojo Jojo was, and everyone knew he created the Rowdyruff Boys. But as Brick saw it, they didn't have a father. He resented being referred to as the son of a monkey, he thought it was beneath him. Butch and Boomer didn't care as much, but followed Brick's lead.

They had had to get birth certificates at city hall one time when they were ten. Brick had them leave the parents' sections and last names blank, they weren't supposed to have any parents.

It all happened because Brick wanted to make a point to Blossom. The girls had to stand there while a bunch of dorks in suits did what Brick wanted. He had called it irony at the time, then he denied he ever said it when Boomer asked what irony was later.

"My apologies, Mr. Brick," the realtor said.

Brick's rage subsided and he took the keys. "Thank you."

The realtor left and Butch thought about how he would do his room. "What if I painted the walls black?"

Brick glared. "You can paint the walls black and I can punch you until you die."

"We're going to need furniture," Boomer said.

"I'll go get our stuff from the warehouse," Butch offered looking for an easy exit.

"No." Brick demanded. "No trash. We're leaving the shitty furniture, the cinder-block bookshelf, and all our other crap. You can bring your clothes, that's it. And I want them in the wash the second they get here."

"Dude-"

"I'm serious, Butch. It's only good shit from now on." Before Butch could protest, their phone alarms rang. "Monster attack outside." Brick smoothed his hair under his cap. "Time to go to work."

Butch looked forward to taking out his frustration on something, but first he had to get outside. Usually, there was a hole in the ceiling or something Butch could fly out of. But the apartment didn't even have a balcony and the front door led to a bunch of elevators. So he did the only thing he could do, he broke through the wall in the living room.

There was a giant flaming squirrel running through the streets. It was breaking stuff and screaming some gibberish Butch didn't understand. Butch punched it in the throat so it would shut up.

"That's coming out of your cut!" Brick yelled. He grabbed the back of the squirrel's neck through the flames and brought it to the ground.

Butch stopped. "What?"

"That hole you left in the side of the building, idiot! The cost of repairing it is coming out of your cut!"

Butch looked back to their building, there was a hole in the side. In the warehouse it didn't matter if stuff broke. Butch groaned. Now they had to fix stuff? "Come on, bro. How the fuck else was I supposed to get outside?"

"There's a fucking window!"

Boomer slammed the squirrel's chin with an uppercut.

"But it has a screen on it."

"Guess what costs more to replace, dumbass. In fact, you're the one who's calling contractors and setting up the repairs."

"I don't even know how to do that!"

The squirrel stopped fighting and tried talking to Butch directly using that gibberish again. It was probably begging for mercy. But Butch was getting mad. He broke its neck with a sharp kick.

"Figure it out, Butch." Brick tossed the giant dead squirrel into the ocean. "It's not that hard."

* * *

Brick made Butch go to the hardware store right after they were done. He had to buy a four-pack of temporary wall kits with his cut. He didn't even know they made those. The store only sold them in packs of four or sixteen. He only needed one, Butch had no idea what he was going to do with the other three. Keep them for the next time he needed to charge through the wall? He was never going to make money doing that.

The temporary wall installed in only 10-minutes. All Butch had to do was put it over the hole and connect a few wires that got torn out when he broke it. The kit even had parts for pipes, but Butch hadn't broken any.

"We should install, like, slingshots or something," Boomer said, looking at the patched wall and drinking a soda.

"What the fuck are you talking about?" Butch asked, not really meaning for Boomer to answer.

"Like catapults... To shoot us into the action faster." He made a weird finger motion, pointing at the wall. Butch stared at him while he did the finger motion again and again.

Butch took a swing at him. "Quit being a spaz." Boomer scrambled away.

The catapult idea was stupid, but it gave Butch an idea of his own. The contractor said it would be a pretty easy build. They worked surprisingly fast, in only three hours they had replaced the entire wall with a single pane of glass. The guys had a pretty good view of the Townsville skyline.

When Brick came back from his Brick-stuff he noticed it immediately and looked equal parts pissed and intrigued.

Butch pulled a fob out of his pocket and pressed the button. The window folded up and out of the way on a track. An entire wall of their living room opened to the outside. "It's like a garage door, but in our apartment." He spit a loogie out the open space and into the wind.

Brick inhaled in preparation to rail at him, but Butch decided to put him out of his misery. "I cleared it with the building owner. It's cool."

Brick's eyes stopped drilling into him and he let out his breath.

"It's so we don't keep destroying the wall when we leave."

Boomer came out of his room. "Huh," he said in his usual disaffected tone. He grabbed a bag of chips and sat on the edge with his legs dangling over the side. The guy did weird stuff sometimes.

"You got any more of those fobs?" Brick asked.

Butch tossed one to Brick and one to Boomer. Boomer caught it behind his back. The kid always acted like he wasn't paying attention, but he was.

Butch huffed, looking at the apartment. They had been there all day and he missed the old sofa he used to sleep on. "We need a fucking couch."

Brick looked over the side straight down to the street. "I got a couch, they're moving it up here."

Butch and Boomer looked at each other, then down to the street. Two guys were yelling at each other about how to carry a couch up 50 flights of stairs.

Butch dropped to the street. The fall took forever, so he juiced his way down and hit the concrete hard enough to shatter it. He picked up the couch with the guys watching and flew it into the apartment. It was gray suede, the perfect material for banging some chick.

Boomer flew into the window behind him carrying three boxes. "You got us mattresses?" He tore one apart and unfolded the foam mattress.

"You gotta let them air out for a while," Brick said.

Butch unboxed his and threw it onto the floor of his room. It unfolded itself slowly, growing out like a mushroom. He had to try it out. The mattress was a lot more comfortable than the old couch, it wasn't itchy at all. Butch didn't think he could get used to it. At least Brick didn't get him a pillow or anything.

Butch went back out into the living room to make himself a protein shake. Brick and Boomer we're sitting on the couch.

There was a knock at the door. Brick answered. The two guys from the street dropped off more fucking boxes.

"That's yer bed frame, yer TV stand, and yer nightstand. Gotta build 'em yourself, there." He held out a clipboard and a pen. "Sign here."

Brick signed. "Thanks guys." He took the bed frame and nightstand into his room.

Boomer built the tv stand and positioned it across from the couch, looked at it, and flew out the open window. He came back a few minutes later with a 52 inch flatscreen tv and a bunch of other boxes.

"You didn't steal that, did you?" Brick asked.

Boomer slammed a receipt down on the kitchen island and Brick started helping him put the stuff together.

"Wireless internet, Playbox Gamestation X, three controllers. Butch, Boomer got the good stuff. Get over here and help us."

It really was nice stuff, too nice.

Butch sped into their old warehouse and grabbed one piece of furniture.

"We're keeping the spool." He put it in the center of the living room and glared at Brick, daring him to stop him.

"It's a piece of shit, Butch," Brick said. "I'll get you one with a fucking yin-yang or whatever the fuck."

"No." Butch shook his head, not backing down. "This reminds us of where we came from."

Brick looked hard into his eyes. Butch glared right back. It was part of who they were and had nothing to do with the monkey or the lobster.

"Fine. The spool stays, nothing else."

* * *

**Sixth Grade**

Butch couldn't believe what he was seeing. "What the fuck are you doing?"

"Reading," Brick said.

"Reading? What, like a girl?"

Brick glared at him. "This book is by Sun Tzu. Its the best book on war there is, but I wouldn't expect you to understand."

"War, huh. That gives me an idea. Lets go blow stuff up!"

"That's boring. We did that yesterday."

"So what, are you gonna read your dumb books all day?"

"If I want to, yeah."

"Fine! Whatever." Butch stomped away, kicking a piece of concrete through the wall on his way outside.

Boomer was on a skateboard, going back and forth across the street. Every once in a while he'd try a trick, but he kept getting stuck hovering a few feet off the ground while his skateboard rolled away. Then he'd have to go get it and start again.

"Hey, Boomer. Let's go blow some stuff up."

"I don't want to."

"Don't want to? You love blowing stuff up."

Boomer jumped into the air. His skateboard fell back to the ground, but Boomer hung there in midair, looking at it.

"First Brick, now you. What the fuck is wrong with you guys?"

Boomer grabbed his skateboard and went up and down the street. Suddenly he looked up and put his hand to his mouth. "I wonder if I could skateboard on the clouds..."

Butch growled and took off. If his brothers didn't want to do anything fun, he would go by himself. He wanted to break some cars on the freeway.


	4. Rebel Girl

**Chapter 4**

**Rebel Girl**

**Sophomore Year - September**

A bullet bounced off of Buttercup's forehead and fell to the ground. It was followed by a hailstorm of gunfire. The bullets may as well have been marshmallows. She didn't have to expend much X to make herself bulletproof. She could go all day, and she would have kept it on while she slept if she didn't have to turn off all her powers to recharge.

Buttercup sighed. Taking down bank robbers was boring. They always did the same thing when she showed up, shot at her and maybe try to hit her with a car. It wasn't a challenge, not like fighting a monster where she would be low on X and have to choose between keeping her body together and getting a good hit in. Her fingers twitched at the thought.

She strode up to the closest guy. Instead of reloading when he ran out of bullets, he tried to whip her with the gun. The metal bounced off of her skin, she barely felt it. A quick throat strike later, and he went into the fetal position, trying to open his windpipe.

Somehow, the Rowdyruff Boys had killed that stupid squid and two questions ran through Buttercup's head. How? And even more importantly, why was everyone saying they were heroes all of a sudden?

The next two robbers stood closely together, unloading every bullet they had into Buttercup. She walked up to them calmly and caught a bullet out of the air to show them. Her fingers flattened the piece of lead easily. The robbers looked at her dumbfounded before she slammed their heads together.

It was all that idiot mayor's fault. Buttercup and her sisters had a tough time defeating one monster and now they can only take care on petty crime. It was such bullshit. She wasn't fighting anymore, it was effortless. Buttercup needed a real fight.

The fourth robber unloaded a shotgun on her. Buttercup had never understood the mindset behind them. Several tiny marshmallows didn't equal one big marshmallow. She snatched the gun out of the robber's hand and snapped it in half. The robber's head slammed into the wall.

As Buttercup made her way to the back, the final robber stopped drilling the vault door and turned the power tool on her. The diamond-tipped drill bit went into Buttercup's palm and broke. He watched his weapon transform into useless scrap, and his frustration dropped. He looked like he was going to shit his pants.

Buttercup glared at him, not moving yet, waiting to see what he would do.

He got to his knees with his hands behind his head, surrendering without her having to do a thing. She smiled with satisfaction.

That was all five, way too easy. Buttercup scanned the building with her x-ray vision to make sure it wasn't a diversion. You never knew if someone was hiding in the vents. While she was busy checking the upper floors the first robber bolted for the door. She stayed behind to finish her task, he wasn't going anywhere.

He made it outside, bounding down the steps of the bank, and looking over his shoulder for Buttercup. He fumbled with the keys to his getaway car. He had pulled open the driver's side door when Buttercup landed on hood, crushing the entire front of the car. The door blew off from the force and the robber went with it.

Buttercup felt the front axle break under her boots and the car's guts spilled out onto the road. "Going somewhere?" she asked the cowering man.

He didn't answer, but tried to block her with his hands in front of his face.

Guys like that, guys who thought they could somehow survive her, needed to be taught a lesson. She grabbed him by the back of his shirt and flew to a 10-story antenna in the suburbs. She left him at the top, clutching onto the thin structure for dear life as it swayed, creaking in the wind. "Now you're not going anywhere."

"Are you fucking crazy!?"

"Stop crying. Someone will be by to pick you up." Buttercup ripped the ladder off the side so he couldn't get down and made it back to the bank to find the other four already in handcuffs.

"No injuries, minor damage," the lieutenant in charge noted. "Thanks, Buttercup."

Buttercup's hands curled into fists. "It was easy." A waste of her time. At least it got her out of first period.

School was only a short flight away. She waved to the robber on the antenna and flew to the back of the school, behind the Ag equipment shed, where she knew Mitch and the guys would be.

Mitch was sitting on a crate, smoking a cigarette with Harry and Pablo. The instant Buttercup saw her boyfriend's dumb face, she remembered she was mad at him.

"Hey babe," Mitch came over and threw his arms around her. Buttercup shrugged him off. "Woah, why so frosty?"

"Shut the fuck up, Mitch."

"Okay, babe. What happened?" He asked, trying to placate her.

Buttercup side-eyed him. "What do you mean 'what happened?' I saw you hanging out with Butch."

"Butch?" Mitch acted like he didn't understand, but he did. The asshole was acting innocent. "What's the matter? The dude is cool."

Buttercup stopped mid-breath. Her phone buzzed in her pocket. Blossom had texted her. [Do you need help with that bank robbery?]

Buttercup typed in a reply. [No]

[Let me know when you finish]

Buttercup rolled her eyes. "Do not hang out with him."

"Come on, Babe. Even Blossom can't tell that guy what to do. You should've seen it. He was telling me about a band he saw in Megaville..."

Buttercup squeezed her fists. She wanted to wring Mitch's neck until he saw it her way. She wanted to yell and scream, but she didn't. She shouldn't have had to. Her idiot boyfriend should have understood.

"Besides, he's a hero now-"

"He's not a fucking hero!" How the fuck could he call Butch a hero? He didn't deserve the title. She was so mad at her boyfriend, her entire being shook.

Then Buttercup heard the sound of impending doom. A classroom door opened on the other side of the school. No escape, even if she ran. She was fucked.

"Thought so," Blossom said, appearing in an instant, her chin all high and mighty.

The guys scrambled away to whatever class they should have been in. Buttercup huffed. She wasn't about to move just because her sister had caught her.

"I take it the robbery has been handled?" Blossom asked.

Buttercup rolled her eyes. "It was a robbery, Bloss. It's not like they're hard."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

Buttercup twitched. She could punch her sister in the face. "Why are you always trying to control me?"

"I am not trying to control you," Blossom said in that controlling tone.

She could do it, Buttercup could punch her sister in the face. She'd catch hell later for fighting, but Blossom wouldn't die. She might even fight back. "So you aren't about to tell me to go to class?"

Blossom scowled. "Do whatever you want." She flipped her hair over her shoulder, and walked away.

* * *

School took forever like it usually did. After it was over, she could do what she really wanted. She was the first one to practice. She got her pads and skates on, grabbed her stick, and hit the ice.

Buttercup's skates slid over the ice, propelling her slowly. Her body throbbed at holding itself back. The hockey team rules said she had to keep her powers off, but her body screamed her to give everything she had, plus a little more. It wanted to fly, it needed to fight.

Pablo shot the puck to Mitch. He spun and went for the goal, trying to pick up speed.

Buttercup shot at him, slamming his body into the boards, stealing the puck and sending it to Floyd.

Mitch glared at her, his lips became a thin line.

The only thing Buttercup cared about was that her body had tensed for the impact, then come away disappointed. Even with her invincibility turned off, those pads kept anyone from doing her any real damage. She felt empty without that threat, something that could destroy her, someone she could hit with everything she had.

That need built to a point that she couldn't stand it. She burst through the roof of the rink, there was someone who could give her everything she wanted.

A burst of far off explosions told her the boys were in the hills outside of town. Buttercup followed the signs, craters, a few leveled areas, and gashes in the ground, signs of a heated training session.

She found them at the end of the trail. Tweedle Dee, Tweedle Dum, and Needle Dick were busy yelling at each other in an open area with no trees or anything. Butch wasn't wearing a shirt, probably to show off his muscles to no one. Brick and Boomer had kept their shirts on, thank god.

Apparently, she had missed the action. They were busy yelling at each other about some stupid thing. Buttercup figured she'd let them air their balls out and see who could piss the farthest before she said anything. Boys were stupid.

"I want a rematch!" Butch demanded at Boomer.

"Seriously?" Brick said. "Butch, you're too slow to hit him. You need to work on your speed."

"Fuck you! Just 'cuz I'm the beefy one doesn't mean I'm slow."

"No, the fact that I can run circles around you does," Boomer said.

"Come here and say that!" Butch lunged at Boomer, only for him to narrowly avoid Butch's grasp.

"Hey, fuckers," Buttercup said over the noise.

They didn't hear her and kept arguing.

"Idiots who could never satisfy a woman..." No answer again.

Buttercup grabbed a boulder and threw it at them.

Boomer zipped out of the way to avoid it. Butch punched it, shattering the rock. Brick didn't move, even when a piece of the boulder broke on his shoulder.

They all looked Buttercup, realizing they had a spectator.

Boomer glared at her. "What do you want?"

Butch smiled and cracked his knuckles. "Finally, a fucking challenge." He took a wide stance and put his fists up. "You want to play?"

Buttercup ignored him and the feeling in her chest that wanted to fuck him up. She handed a piece of paper to Brick.

Brick raised an eyebrow reading it. That got his brothers' attention. They looked over his shoulder at what it said.

Resume  
Buttercup Utonium  
555-542-5227  
Age: 15  
Experience: 10 years of fighting monsters attacking Townsville

The rest was blank.

"Do you have any references?" Brick asked.

"Yeah, I got references." Her eyes narrowed at him and she raised her fists.

Brick huffed.

"What!? You're going to let her join the Rowdyruffs!?" Butch said.

"Thinking about it."

Buttercup eyed Butch. His head twitched subtly. He wanted a fight. And she couldn't deny that she wanted to fight him too. But she was out for bigger fish: monsters. She needed a steady supply to fight.

"Aren't you with that 'other' superhero team?" Boomer asked.

"Doesn't mean I can't freelance."

Brick cocked his head and considered it. "What can you bring to the Rowdyruff Boys?"

"I can run circles around Butch and I can fold Boomer in half."

"No you can't," Boomer said.

Buttercup opened her hands like she was going to grab him. "Want to wrestle for it?"

Boomer pursed his lips and snorted, but didn't follow up with anything. Smart boy.

"How about a try-out?" Brick asked.

"Sure," Buttercup said, looking to Butch. She was about to get the best of both options.

Butch had a shit-eating grin bigger than his whole face. A wave pulsed through her. Buttercup vs Butch, a war of arch-rivals. Butch was Buttercup's only equal. He would try to kill her, and unlike everyone else in the world, he had a shot at succeeding.

They squared off against each other. Buttercup's heart pounded. She loved the moment right before the action. The breeze waved through her hair. The sun beat down on the battlefield. The anticipation of a great fight, Butch. She had only beaten him in a fair fight a few times.

The thing about Butch was that he was ridiculously strong, those muscles weren't for show. No one threw a punch like Butch. And if he got his hands on you, he could unscrew your head.

Butch had three weaknesses. The first was that he was slow, still super-humanly fast, but Buttercup could outmaneuver him. The second was that he only had one ranged attack: his eyebeams. Butch's eyebeams had evolved to attack the target's nervous system. They didn't hurt much, but stunned whoever they hit for a few seconds, giving Butch the chance to get in close. His third weakness was that he was all offense. He hardly ever blocked, and when he did, he would meet Buttercup's fist with his own. It was more like punching punches than actual blocking.

Get in close. Don't let him use his eyebeams, but don't let him grab you. Make him swing and miss. Get your shots in around his defense. Hooks and uppercuts so he can't block effectively. Speed and coordination over strength. He was tough, so it might take a while. If the worst should happen, she could always use her own eyebeams.

Buttercup was ready. She dug her foot into the ground.

"No." Brick unbuttoned his overshirt and rolled up the sleeves. "Me."

Buttercup's eyes went wide for a split second. Her heart fell out of her chest. Fighting Brick was nothing like fighting Butch. Butch was all striking and grappling, standard stuff, stuff she was used to. Brick was totally different. He kept an entire arsenal behind his back.

"Great."

Buttercup kept her gaze on him. He glared at her with blood red eyes and hands open and at his sides, casual as could be. He could do almost anything. Brick was Blossom's problem. Buttercup had no idea how to fight him.

Brick dashed toward her with his arm cocked and ready, his fist blazing.

Buttercup blocked and countered with a series of punches that Brick blocked. He was much more coordinated than Butch. She came around with a spin kick trying to circle him right, but he grabbed her ankle and came at her with his own kick.

It was like being hit in the side with an ocean liner. She told herself it didn't hurt and used the momentum to spin backward. He let go rather than lose his footing.

The instant she hit the ground again she threw up her forcefield to block the hit she knew was coming.

Brick slammed her shield so hard it cracked. Her boots slid back through the dirt. She kept it up to buy time to figure out what to do next.

He smirked at her through the translucent green energy, studying its size. It wasn't anything like what her sisters could create, only a small shield on her forearm.

Brick knocked on it a few times. "How strong is that thing?" He dashed a few yards back, collecting fire in his hands. When they were kids, he had fire breath. Sometime around middle school he learned to channel it through his hands.

Buttercup hated using her shield, it was a huge Chemical X suck. She only ever used it when she absolutely had to. Right then she kicked herself at not training as much with forcefields as her sisters had. Whatever Brick was planning, it was going to be bad.

The flames collected into a blinding point of light and Brick unleashed a beam of fire.

Buttercup's shield survived the initial hit, but she couldn't keep it up. It shattered within a second. She was already out of there, circling through the flames, around his left.

Brick saw her and spun his leg to where he thought she was going to make contact.

Buttercup held back, out of range of his kick. She spun behind him and took an elbow to the head. Her fist went into his side with at thunderous 'crack'. She smiled through the pain, breaking the sound barrier with that beauty. Brick and Buttercup's hits forced them away from each other again.

Buttercup pressed her fingers into the side of her head. Her skull felt like it had split.

Brick glared at her with barely-concealed rage, trying not to show she had hurt him. She remembered something Blossom once told her about Brick. How did she put it? 'Pain is an insult to his ego.' A fancy way of saying he had a glass jaw. A few really good hits would take him down. Thing was, she'd never get the chance to actually hit him. Brick was hitting hard and fast. She was going to have to do something crazy and survive a few hits so she could get a couple more good ones.

His eyes began glowing as he forced Chemical X into them.

Imagine getting dunked into a vat of acid, your skin ripping off and your flesh dissolving the longer you're submerged, not being able to move because of the agony while your life leaked out of you. That's what Brick's eyebeams felt like. He could grind even a superhuman to nothing.

Buttercup charged in close and rammed at him before he could get the shot off.

Brick slammed her in the head again and kneed her in the gut. She managed to get a pair of jabs in, but they bounced right off him, tiny marshmallows.

In desperation, Buttercup aimed at his chest and unleashed a heat beam out of her eyes.

Brick exploded. Fountains of fire licked her face while the force knocked her into a boulder. She sucked in a breath.

Brick strode through the dust. Fire blazed over his clothes. He cocked his head at her, totally in control.

Ever since Buttercup could remember, her eyebeams had been permanently set to heat. They were great for melting steel, but she should have known it was a long-shot using them against Fire Incarnate.

Buttercup grabbed both halves of the split boulder on either side of her, took off into the sky, and hurled them at him from above.

Brick came at her and punched both out of his way with an easy confidence. Buttercup took advantage of the distraction to kick him in the head, pounding him into the ground.

All she had to do was finish him. Buttercup came down like a meteor with a drop-kick.

He grabbed her leg before she could connect and spun her into the dirt with him. He forced her into a hold. The flames engulfing him scorched her skin. It wasn't the exhilarating jolt of being hit really hard, it was agony.

Pure adrenaline let Buttercup jerk him off of her and escape.

He didn't give her a single instant, Brick's next punch was already tracking her. Buttercup got her arms into position to block, planning to muscle through the hit and counter. She could still outlast him.

Brick's punch broke her defense and he hit her in the eye with a loud 'boom'. The world blinked out and three more hits, two in the gut, one in the jaw, came in, Buttercup never saw them coming.

She hit the ground tasting blood. Her legs wouldn't get her back up and she didn't have enough X to do anything. Her hand grabbed a clump of dirt and gave out on her. Something on her face was wet. Her body throbbed in pain.

Buttercup was done, no second-wind, no burst of rage to grant her victory. It was over, Brick had won.

Brick stood over her and crouched down. He studied her smirking. The fire went out. "Pretty good."

It took a few seconds before Buttercup realized what was going on. She rolled onto her back to catch her breath, and for some reason, he let her. Every part of her hurt. Not all of it bad, most of it not good.

"We'll keep your resume on file and call if we need you." Brick looked at Boomer and Butch. "We're done for the day." He took off toward town with Boomer right behind him.

Butch didn't watch his brothers leave. He glared at her, jaw clenched.

Buttercup staggered to her feet. She couldn't take him, but she wasn't going to give him the satisfaction. He could end her right there if he wanted to and if he did, she wasn't going to be helpless on the ground.

There were burns on his hands and a discolored spider web pattern on his chest. Pain, courtesy of his brothers, though the wounds were already healing.

He strode up to her, smiling. She scowled, not giving him an inch.

"Next time, I get to kick your ass," Butch said.

"Fuck off."

Butch's shark-toothed grin got wider. He took off following his brothers, leaving only a green streak behind him.

With her ass thoroughly kicked, Buttercup collapsed. She focused on healing while she watched the sun go down over Townsville. It got quiet and cold, but Buttercup didn't care.

She got home an hour later. Blossom was on the couch, doing homework, Bubbles rested her head on Blossom's shoulder, texting like a madwoman. Buttercup kicked her boots off, grabbed a bag of marshmallows from the pantry, and turned on the TV. She found a recap of the MMA fight over the weekend. Buttercup didn't get to watch live, the professor wouldn't spring for it.

Bubbles leaned against her on the couch. It wouldn't be long before she had her head in Buttercup's lap. And sure enough, within a minute, Bubbles stretched out, taking the entirety of Buttercup's personal space. Blossom stood up to let Bubbles fully extend herself over the couch, never taking her eyes off of her textbook, then sat on her back. Buttercup draped her arm over her sisters and leaned against Blossom.

"I'm still upset with you," Blossom said, resting some of her weight into Buttercup. She could be mad, it never lasted that long anyway.

They curled up together for awhile, each doing their own thing. Buttercup's heart finally calmed. There was no way her sisters couldn't have noticed the bruises and burns still healing on Buttercup's skin, but neither said anything. They let her be Buttercup.

The sound of the garage door opening and then closing droned through the house. Mrs. Bellum stepped into the living room after parking her car. Her heels clicked across the hardwood.

"Hey mom," Bubbles said. Blossom smiled at her.

"Buttercup," Mrs. Bellum said in a soft tone. She crossed her arms over her chest. "I think we need to have a talk."

Great, another one of these. Blossom and Bubbles untangled and excused themselves, leaving Buttercup alone with her mom.

Mrs. Bellum sat on the ottoman and clasped her hands. "The police said there were five assailants at the bank robbery today, but they only arrested four. The fifth was found on an antenna. The ladder was badly damaged near the top, as if it had been ripped off. He couldn't get down."

"Oh yeah?" Buttercup asked, tossing a marshmallow into her mouth.

"He was up there for over eight hours before an emergency crew was able to retrieve him."

Buttercup snickered to herself.

"This is not funny, Buttercup."

She had been an inch from death earlier that day. Yeah, it was pretty fucking funny.

* * *

Brick leaned on the sink in the bathroom of the burger joint the guys stopped at for dinner. He had ordered them there, using the meal as an excuse. There was no way he was going to make it all the way home, he would have fallen right out of the sky.

Buttercup sure as hell knew how to kick ass. It was one thing to hear about it on the news, and quite another to actually feel it. Definitely faster than Butch and a fair bit stronger than Boomer. He was pretty sure she knocked his brain loose with that kick.

He didn't get a chance to test his eyebeams on her. She saw what he was about to do and pressed the attack. Smart too, smart enough not to let herself get blasted anyway. Brick could use that.

He had managed to end it quickly and keep himself composed. That was one thing he had to do, make it look like he was invincible. His brothers couldn't know she almost had him. And she absolutely couldn't know.

He swallowed, using the last drop of X he had to heal a little then turned off his powers so he could regenerate. He'd feel a lot better once he got something to eat.

When he got back to the table, the food was waiting for him. Butch and Boomer were mostly done with their meals. Brick sat on his side of the table and took a bite of the burger.

"She kick your ass or what?" Butch asked, ribbing Brick.

Brick snorted. "I don't know why you have such a tough time with her."

"Fuck you, bro."

"She's not actually going to be part of the team, is she?" Boomer asked.

He had hit her so fucking hard, and she would not go down. She took hits that would have laid Butch out. 'Toughest Fighter', fuck, she earned that one.

"I don't know." Brick dipped a bunch of fries in ketchup and ate them. "Probably not." If one of his brothers missed a call, it was good to know she was an option.

* * *

**Kindergarten**

"And your name will be... Buttercup. Because it also begins with a 'B'."

She crossed her arms. 'Buttercup'!? What kind of dumb name is that? She didn't want to be 'Buttercup'. She wanted to be... she didn't know, but something else, something cool.

Well she wasn't going to answer to 'Buttercup'. That wasn't her name. She wasn't some stupid flower.

If Blossom was Blossom because she opened right up, and Bubbles was Bubbles because she was bubbly, what did being named Buttercup make her? Her name didn't have to start with a 'B' just because her sisters' did.

Ugh! Fine! They could call her 'Buttercup, but she was going to make it her own. She was going to be her own person. She was going to do whatever she wanted, no matter what anyone said. Everyone would know 'Buttercup' meant 'tough' from now on.


	5. Paper Tiger

**Chapter 5**

**Paper Tiger**

**Sophomore Year - September**

Boomer ignored his phone alarm, rolled over, and tried to go back to sleep. Whatever the hell Butch was doing made too much noise for that to work. So he laid in bed, wrapped in his covers, doing nothing.

"Boomer! School!" Brick shouted through the door. "Do not make me come in there." Brick wasn't kidding, he would drag Boomer out of bed and make him go. It was better to just do what he said, it made things easier. He smelled cooking bacon anyway.

Boomer pulled on the nearest clothes, grabbed his backpack, and went out into the kitchen. But there wasn't anything on the counter.

"Someone make breakfast?" Boomer asked.

"No," Butch snorted from the couch, putting a spoonful of cereal into his mouth while reading something on his phone.

"Ready to go?" Brick asked, stepping down the stairs and stuffing a book into his backpack. "You better wash that bowl and spoon before we leave."

"It's cool, Brick." Butch put the cereal away and took his dishes to the sink. "We have a dishwasher now."

"Isn't there bacon?" Boomer asked.

"You want bacon? Get your ass out of bed earlier and make it yourself," Brick said.

Boomer rolled his head away. His brothers were never thinking about anyone but themselves. "So what do I get to eat?"

"I don't fucking know, but make it quick." Brick looked at his phone.

Boomer opened the pantry. All the good food was gone. Whatever was left he would have to make.

"He didn't make me any bacon either," Butch said, loading his spoon and bowl into the dishwasher.

Boomer rolled his eyes and went back to the nothing in the pantry. It was all bullshit food. Why did they even have three boxes of rice and a bag of potatoes?

"Dude, just grab something," Butch's hand wrapped around a bag of bread and he gave it to Boomer.

Boomer inspected the bag's contents. There were only four slices left and two of them were end pieces. "Bread? That's it?"

Butch huffed and grabbed a jar of peanut butter. He forced it into Boomer's other hand. "There."

"What am I gonna spread it with?"

"Your finger, I don't care." Butch waved him off.

"Let's go." Brick hit the button opening the living room wall. He and Butch flew out of the apartment. Boomer stuffed the bread and jar of peanut butter into his backpack and followed.

Boomer met his friends under a tree before school started. They were wasting time playing hacky sack before classes started. Boomer was hungry, so he dipped the bread into the peanut butter rather than spreading it with his finger like Butch had suggested. He wasn't an animal.

When he ran out of bread he got himself into the circle his friends were standing in. The hacky sack passed back and forth between them and came toward Boomer. He kicked it straight up and caught it on top of his head. He floated up so everyone could see.

They weren't looking at him, they looked everywhere else but at him. One person groaned. Everyone was mad.

"Come on, man. Pass it to someone."

"This isn't about showing off, we just want to play."

Boomer turned his head to drop the sack. It plopped onto the ground. He wanted to say something, but couldn't find the words. It's not like he used powers or anything, and he wasn't showing off. Why were they all mad? He had been new to their group, but he thought they were friends. Why didn't they want him around? Why didn't anyone want him around? He stared at the deflated bag of beads.

The bell rang and instead of going to class, Boomer wandered down the halls. His eyes panned over flyers posed on the walls announcing clubs, events, and whatever else was going on that Boomer didn't want anything to do with. He wanted to go home so he could do whatever. No one ever wanted him around anyway. Everyone liked Butch and Brick. but Boomer never got to hang out with anyone. He was the screwup brother.

Down the hall a big guy in a letterman jacket had some kid in a headlock. It was a strange thing to happen, everyone was supposed to be in class.

"Alright, loser," the jock said. "Pay up or get beat."

The kid didn't struggle, he pulled some money out of his pocket and gave it to the bigger guy, his hand shaking the entire time.

"Homework too!" The bully tightened the hold. For a moment, he looked like Butch, but even bigger.

The kid pulled back tears, straining to get air. "I need to get it out of my backpack," he managed.

The bully released the lock and slammed the kid into the lockers. "Get it then."

"Hey!" Boomer stepped forward scowling at the bully. "Leave him alone or I'll..." He trailed off. Boomer was never good at playing hero. What was he even doing? No one wanted his help. His mind dissociated from whatever his body was doing. He was outside of himself, watching.

The bully turned toward Boomer and a menacing smile formed on his face. "You standing up for him, you little bitch?" He dragged his victim along the row of lockers toward Boomer. The kid's head banged on the padlocks as he went. "I think I'll take your lunch money too."

The bully towered over Boomer. "Lunch money. Now." He held out his hand.

That guy would have never even messed with Butch. Butch would have kicked his ass without a second thought. Brick might have killed him. He visualized Brick pushing the bully's head into the lockers until one crushed the other. But, then again, Boomer could do that too...

His mind slid into someplace comfortable, like he remembered who he was. The world came back, sharp and visceral. "Why don't you give me your lunch money?"

The bully mentally recoiled, as if he had never considered it could happen to him. He quickly recovered. "You're asking for it." He let the kid he was holding go and puffed up his muscles.

Boomer stepped forward and got in the asshole's face. "Give me your lunch money. Now."

Boomer didn't feel much when the guy's knuckles broke against his cheek. It felt like a strong breeze.

He went down like a bitch, clutching his devastated hand, laying on the floor, shocked at what had happened. "You broke my fucking hand, you piece of shit." He spoke in a half whisper to keep the pain down.

"I wasn't kidding." Boomer held out his hand, their positions reversed. "Money. All of it."

The bully was totally focused on himself. To him, Boomer wasn't even there.

"Hey!" Boomer punched a nearby locker without his super strength. It didn't do any damage, but it was loud. "Money."

The bully reluctantly pulled the money he got from his victim out of his pocket and handed it to Boomer, his good hand shaking.

"I said 'all of it'."

"I- I- don't have any."

Boomer growled. Wasn't that what Butch did? No. Butch would have choked him.

"Okay, okay. Here." The bully took his wallet out of his pocket. Before he could get the money out, Boomer snatched up the whole thing.

He looked in the cash pocket, there were a bunch of bills, including a couple of 20s, and slipped it into his own pocket. "Cell phone."

The guy looked equal parts offended, terrified, and in pain. Pathetic. Was that how his brothers saw him?

The guy waffled a bit, having to give in to the demands of someone much stronger than him but still not wanting to give up his phone. He had never had that happen before.

Boomer reached into the boy's pocket and took his phone. "Tomorrow, you're going to have 20 for me or I'm taking your car keys. Got it?"

The boy looked away, then nodded.

Boomer rolled his eyes and walked away. He studied the phone and wondered how much he could get for it. Then he remembered they got paid for taking down monsters. Taking the phone was stupid. It was like one of those principle things Brick liked to talk about, but not worth the effort. what was he thinking?

"Hey," a voice came from behind Boomer. It was that kid the bully was beating on before Boomer had stepped in. "Thanks for..." the kid was taller than Boomer, but had even less muscle. He was acting all meek for some reason.

Boomer had no idea what to do.

"...helping me." The kid stood weird and he wouldn't look up from the floor. "You're Boomer, right?"

"Yeah."

He finally looked up at him. "I'm Mike Believe." He held a hand out to shake.

Boomer thought it was weird, guys didn't shake hands, they fist-bumped or head-butted each other. Old men in business suits shook hands. It was weird, but he shook the guy's hand anyway. "Oh right." Boomer gave Mike his money back. It was only a five anyway.

"Thanks, man." Mike took Boomer's offering. "Look, I gotta get to class. But I'll see you around?" He asked hopefully.

"Yeah." Is this what it felt like to be cool? It was uncomfortable, but Boomer liked it. "See you around."

* * *

Boomer went to his first-period class. They were watching some nature thing where a fancy narrator talked about "the majestic snow leopard". He yawned.

Cats led him across the tundra and he finally felt free.

"Boomer." Boomer jerked back into reality. The teacher was staring at him holding the class phone. "They need to see you in the principal's office.

"Okay." Boomer got up and walked out of class. Why would they need to see him at the office? Was it a monster attack? Or something worse?

He was almost to the administration office door, when someone slammed him into a locker.

"What did you do?" Brick demanded.

"Nothing!"

"Do not lie to me, asshole. You did something in the halls twenty minutes ago."

"Oh yeah, that. This huge guy was robbing this other guy, Mike. Took his money and homework, and..." Boomer hung his head. "Then I took his wallet and phone."

Brick squinted at him like he was thinking something. "You robbed a guy who was in the middle of robbing a guy?"

"...Kinda..." Boomer handed Brick the wallet and phone. "I haven't taken any money out of it, I swear."

Brick looked into the wallet. "You didn't hurt him did you?"

"...yeah, kinda. He punched me and hurt himself."

"He punched you?"

"Yeah."

"Did you punch him back?"

"No."

Brick took off his hat, ran his fingers through his hair, and put the hat back on.

Boomer cocked his head. "How did you-"

"Shut up." Brick demanded. "Let me do all the talking. Do not say a word." He turned toward the principal's office and sighed. "Blossom's in there." He looked through the door.

Boomer took a look through the walls with his x-ray vision. Blossom stood next to the principal with her hands on her hips.

Brick set his eyes hard at Boomer. "Give me your phone."

"What!? Why!?" Boomer reached his hand into his pocket to protect his phone. "No."

Brick's eyes narrowed. He reached into Boomer's pocket. Boomer tried to stop him by jerking away, but Brick kept on him. Boomer squirmed against Brick's strength, desperately trying not to get his phone crushed. Brick pried it out of his hand and held it out of reach. He opened the camera and set it to video.

"Record this whole thing." Brick gave Boomer his phone back, forcing him to hold it horizontally. "Eyes on the screen, try to capture the action, like you're filming one of your dumb skateboard tricks."

Boomer groaned at having to do more stuff. Whatever that was about, Brick had a plan and Boomer had to follow. He kept his phone up and Brick led him into the office.

"Name?" the office administrator asked.

Brick walked right by, ignoring her and opened the door to the principal's office.

"If you boys are done roughhousing, we should begin," Blossom said before they had entered, smirking at Brick. "And yes, I would encourage you to record this meeting on camera. Wouldn't you agree, Principal Butte?"

"Absolutely," the principal agreed.

The office was big with a window on the back wall. There were filing cabinets along another. The desk was big and there was a lot of stuff on it, papers mostly, but also an open laptop. The screensaver showed highlights from the last X-ers game. A football sat near it.

"This is a matter between Boomer and the school," Brick said. "Why is she here?"

"Any time there is an incident at the school involving superpowers or technology enhancing the abilities of normal humans to super-human levels, I act as an advisor to the administration," Blossom said sweetly and smiled. "And why are you here?"

"Boomer is allowed representation."

Blossom rolled her eyes, still smiling. "Great."

"Let's begin." Principal Butte took a breath. "There was a fight in the halls. It seems Boomer injured another student, Tyler Shoe, at 8:04 this morning. We have it on the security camera. Tyler has been taken to the hospital so that the doctors can put his arm into a cast. Boomer will be suspended for three weeks for fighting with a possible review of his expulsion."

Brick tilted his head slightly. "Is it possible for us to review the video?"

"Of course." Principal Butte tapped the laptop and the video played.

The video started from the point just before Tyler punched Boomer. There was no sound, it was in black and white, and it was picture was grainy. Boomer tried to capture as much of it as he could, per Brick's instructions. It played until Boomer took Tyler's wallet and phone and walked away.

Once it was over, it went back to the first frame with Boomer and Tyler standing across from each other.

Brick nodded his head. "Thank you for bringing this to my attention, Principal Butte," he said. "And yes, we will be pressing charges."

Principal Butte shook her head. "Boomer is the one who-"

"Boomer is the one who was punched, I'm well aware of that." Brick smirked. "That constitutes assault and battery."

Blossom's face became a scowl. "He clearly stole Tyler's wallet and phone."

"I believe the proper term is 'confiscated'," Brick said placing the items on the principal's desk. "He had planned on returning them when the school decided to settle the bullying matter."

"Clearly Tyler shouldn't have punched Boomer." Blossom said. "However, the situation does not constitute bullying. Boomer was not injured in any way. At worst this could be called attempted-bullying."

"There's no such thing as 'attempted-bullying'," Brick explained. "If I made fun of another student for their weight issues, I would be bullying even if the victim wasn't embarrassed about it. But I was referring to the other student, of course."

Principal Butte crossed his arms. "What other student?"

Brick pointed to the computer monitor. In the paused video, Tyler's arm was wrapped around Mike's head and crushing him into the lockers. "That student." There was an entire person sticking out from behind Tyler. Boomer got it on camera.

"That's Mike. Tyler stole his money." Boomer said. "And he wanted to steal his homework too. I can show you. Does the video go ba-" A look from Brick told him to shut up.

"Why was that part of the incident not included?" Brick asked Blossom directly.

"Because it did not involve Boomer," Principal Butte said. "Boomer decided to involve himself."

"Much like the Powerpuff Girls decide to involve themselves when they beat people up. Those people just so happen to be in the middle of committing a crime, like Tyler was committing a crime in this instance."

Blossom growled.

"The school seems to have these cameras everywhere. If I checked the footage from the past few days, would I find this same student stealing money and homework from Mike?"

Principal Butte shook his head. "I'm not letting you see that footage, Mr. Jojo."

It felt as if someone had turned on the heater in the middle of summer. Brick's expression and stance didn't change, but the principal had pressed the 'Jojo' button.

"It's 'Brick'," Blossom said. "He doesn't have a last name."

"Is that some kind of 'identity politics' thing?" Principal Butte asked.

"No, its a legal name thing," Brick said. He tightened a fist. "Tyler complained about the incident with Boomer, didn't he. That's why the administration acted so quickly." Brick turned around and looked through the open door, at the office administrator in the hall. "And it happened exactly four-minutes after class started. It's almost like it was planned. But that would be impossible to prove," Brick mused. He turned toward the office administrator through the open door. "Has Mike ever filed a complaint about any incidents with Tyler?"

The administrator looked down her glasses at Brick.

"The incident happened at 8:04. Perhaps we should go through the attendance records to see if Mike has been marked late to first period lately. Though, I doubt Tyler has."

The administrator's scowl deepened.

Brick bored his eyes into Blossom. "The only reason you wouldn't let me review the attendance records is because you have something to hide."

Blossin took a step forward. "This school has nothing to-"

Principal Butte rubbed his beard "I think we should all..." he didn't say anything, even though it felt like he should have.

Brick smirked at Blossom. It was that one he gave right before he took someone down. Boomer had been on the receiving end many times. He palmed the football that was sitting on the Principal's des.

"So, the school has had evidence for bullying this entire time and done nothing?" Brick asked to no one in particular. "Why, oh why, might that be?" he threw the football at Blossom using super strength.

Blossom caught it and gave Brick a dirty look. Was that supposed to mean something? She placed the it on a nearby filing cabinet.

"Would anyone care to tell me when the administration planned on doing something about Tyler's reign of terror?" Brick asked. "Because it's seems to me that the school was perfectly content with theft going on within the halls, as long as the perpetrator was the school's precious quarterback."

Tyler was the quarterback of the football team? Boomer had no idea who the guy was.

"Look, everyone's fine. I sure Tyler has learned his lesson." Principal Butte rested a hand on his desk. "No punishments need to be handed out."

"You were just about to hand Boomer a three-week suspension for theft before this examination, not to mention the possible expulsion. And now you refuse to do your job." Brick smirked. "Perhaps I should inform the superintendent, or better yet, Mrs. Bellum."

Principal Butte snorted. "As if you could actually get a hold of-"

He was interrupted by a ringing coming from Brick's phone. Boomer finally got it, that's why Brick wanted Boomer to record it on his phone, because Brick knew he might need his own phone. It's smart to plan ahead like that.

"Good afternoon, Brick." Mrs. Bellum's voice came through. "How can I help you?"

"Hello Mrs. Bellum. I'm in a meeting with the principal. There has been an incident at the school. One of the varsity football players punched Boomer in the face."

"Is Blossom with you?"

"Yes," Blossom said. "I'm here."

Brick mouthed something to Blossom. She gave him another dirty look.

"Blossom, have you reviewed the incident?"

"Yes. The camera footage shows that Boomer was not at fault."

"Then why am I receiving a call, Brick?" Bellum asked with venom in her voice.

"My issue is that when we entered this meeting, Boomer had been deemed 'at-fault'. Principal Butte planned on handing Boomer a three-week suspension before we reviewed the footage. Now, he is refusing to punish the football star for ongoing bullying and theft."

"Mom, you should know this is being recorded," Blossom said hastily.

"I want him fired immediately, or the recording on Boomer's phone of this entire incident will be published on the internet."

Mrs. Bellum sighed. "Are we having a tantrum, Brick?"

Principal Butte chuckled.

"Quite the opposite Mrs. Bellum. I insist that this school employ an effective principal, who deals with these types of incidents without bias and can hand out punishments fairly. After all, if individuals are allowed to abuse their power, this city could very well descend into..." Brick chewed on the last word. "Chaos."

There was a pregnant pause on the other end. Everyone in the room, except Brick, stared at the phone. The call timer counted the seconds.

"Consider it done," Bellum finally said and she hung up.

Principal Butte looked aghast at what had happened. His office phone rang.

Brick smirked at Blossom. "We're done here." He pulled Boomer out of the office.

A few words and Boomer was spared three-week suspension. Was Brick a miracle worker? Or did he make some kind of deal with the devil?

When they got back out into the halls, Brick punched Boomer's shoulder. It didn't hurt, Brick wasn't using his super strength, but Boomer flinched anyway. "Next time you're cleaning your own mess."

Blossom retreated from the office with a scowl on her face and her arms crossed.

"Get back to class," Brick said before turning toward her.

* * *

Butch took a drag of his cigarette and blew a puff smoke into the air. "Hold up, some douchey football player thought he could beat up Boomer!?"

Boomer swallowed the pizza in his mouth. "Yeah. I mean, he punched me."

Butch laughed. "That's awesome. Plus, you got that asshole principal fired?"

"Yeah, well, no. Brick did that."

"He pissed me off." Brick took a bite of his own slice. "Fuck him."

"Aww man, I'm gonna miss making fun of that guy. Heh, Principal 'Butt'. He threw me in detention every time I called him 'Seymour'." Butch flicked his cigarette off the side of their building. "Yeah. Fuck him. His replacement can't be any worse, right?"

* * *

**Kindergarten**

"You let yourself get captured?" Butch punched Boomer in the stomach.

Boomer sucked in air but his lungs wouldn't let him. He doubled over.

Butch stood Boomer up again. "AND you got beaten up by a bunch of girls?" Butch punched him twice.

"There were three of 'em," Boomer pleaded.

Butch kicked him. "It don't matter how many there were! You're supposed to be a Rowdyruff Boy!"

It wasn't fair. Boomer was always 'the dumb one' 'the weak one'. He hated being called that.

"Be stronger," Butch said.

"Get smarter," Brick said.

But he would never be as strong as Butch or as smart as Brick. He wasn't good at anything. He could cry and that was it.

"You're pathetic," Brick said. "Put some clothes on."


	6. Free Spirit

**Chapter 6**

**Free Spirit**

**Sophomore Year - September**

Bubbles floated above a vineyard overlooking the valley. Townsville sat at the center, a yellow-tinted statue on a under a big blue sky.

Her supplies rested on a small force field that drew near. Bubbles swirled her brush through the yellow on her palette, blending with white and the slightest bit of black. Yellow was such a weak color, it would surrender to the black immediately and she'd be left with a rotten banana mess.

When she was satisfied with the range of yellow she had, she experimented with the lime green and pink. Those two always seemed to find themselves in her work. A tiny bit of yellow went into the blue, giving it an otherworldly glow without falling into green.

Bubbles began painting on her small canvas in long horizontal strokes. She captured the morning sky with a little wave, giving the background a wind-swept feel.

The pink-yellow and the green-yellow made up the hills in front of the sky. They flowed into each other like two rivers meeting.

When the background had dried, Bubbles used a straightedge to get the skyscrapers square and in perspective. They stood out against the curves and swirls that made up the sky and ground. Canary gave the buildings a glare and balanced the dijon shadows.

One or two pops of purple and she was finished. It was perfect. Townsville was always monochromatic like that, the glass and white concrete of the buildings reflected the atmosphere. It could be a somber blue, or an electric orange, or a vibrant green. Today it was yellow, and Bubbles preferred to think of it as reflecting sunshine instead of the dry late summer air.

"The city of Townsville!" Bubbles proclaimed, holding her painting up. She admired her work for a moment before her alarm went off.

Shutting down the chime, she packed up her paints and sighed. No more time to enjoy it, she only had a few minutes to get to school.

A few seconds later and she was in her room swapping her art supplies for her school backpack. After rinsing out her brushes and a quick check of her makeup, she floated downstairs to grab breakfast.

Buttercup, dressed in a pair of skinny jeans, a loose-fitting band tee, and those clunky boots she wore every single day, leaned against the counter waiting for the toaster.

Bubbles gathered berries, chopped walnuts, and a scoop of granola into a bowl.

"Blossom leave early?" Buttercup asked. The toaster popped and she spread a copious amount of butter on her toast.

"Must have," Bubbles replied.

Buttercup checked their surroundings to make sure their parents weren't in earshot. "You going to that thing tomorrow night?"

Bubbles' friends tended to stick to their own parties. She knew what kinds of things happened on the other side of town. "I hadn't planned on it."

Buttercup crossed her arms and huffed. "Mitch is going."

"Okay..." Bubbles rolled her eyes.

"And apparently he's friends with Butch now."

"They hang out in the same circles. What's the problem?"

Buttercup pursed her lips. "Butch." The word ground itself out of her mouth, like she didn't want to let it go.

She wanted Bubbles to engage, but Bubbles was already over it. "Blossom knows more about boyfriend troubles than I do."

"I can't talk to Blossom, she's always on me for ditching."

"She's not 'always on' you," Bubbles said, washing out her bowl. Buttercup needed everything said out loud. "She wanted to know that you got the job done. She was not going to tell mom or dad."

"Yeah, but I still have to deal with her 'I'm disappointed in you' look." Buttercup finished her breakfast and grabbed her bag. "It's worse than mom's."

Bubbles took a breath. She had let Buttercup drag her into Blossom drama too many times. No more, she wasn't their mediator. She would just leave it there and pick up her own bag for school.

They took off and flew side-by-side. Buttercup always wanted to fly faster than was warranted. Bubbles kept pace with her, using a force field as a windscreen so her hair didn't get messed up.

When they passed close to downtown, they heard commotion below. "Help!" A thief ripped the purse off of a woman's arm.

"Your turn," Buttercup said, flipping her hair out of her eyes and she sped off in school's direction.

The thief ran up the sidewalk.

This was the perfect chance for Bubbles to get some good karma in. She reached her hand out and envisioned grabbing the thief's leg. A ball and chain made of force fields clamped around his ankle.

The thief tripped and hit the sidewalk. He lumbered back up and tried to run. The ball and chain, still around his leg, stopped him from getting very far.

Bubbles landed. "Are you alright?" she asked the lady who had her purse stolen.

"Yes. Thank you, Bubbles."

"Don't thank me yet! We're not done." She strode up to the thief with the lady in tow.

The thief pulled with all his might, dragging the heavy ball up the sidewalk about an inch at a time.

"Nuh uh uh. You're not going anywhere. Not until you're sorry."

The thief scowled and tried to pull Bubbles' force fields off of his ankle.

"Apologize," she demanded.

"No, it's okay. He doesn't need to-"

"Oh yes he does. Otherwise, this is where he's going." Bubbles closed her fingers over an open palm and prison bars formed around him.

"What the f-"

"Language!" Bubbles stomped her foot and made his cell smaller. "Now are you going to apologize or not?"

The thief took in his situation, a glowing cage he'd never escape, a superhero right in front of him. He had no way out. He lowered his head and mumbled, "sorry..."

"That's it?" Bubbles turned to the lady. "I don't think he's actually sorry."

"No. I am." He looked at the lady he had stolen the purse from. "It was wrong to steal your purse. I-"

Bubbles glared at him. He recoiled.

"I was bad. I'm sorry."

"Now give it back."

He offered her the purse through the bars. She took it and made sure everything was still inside. "Thank you." She waved before leaving.

Bubbles waved and smiled back. She strode up to the thief still trapped in the cell. "Now don't you feel better?"

"Yes," the thief said with hope in his eyes. "Now can I go?"

"Go? I thought you were sorry?"

"I am!"

"Then why don't you want to make it right?"

"I thought I did. I gave the purse back and said 'I'm sorry'."

"You're only part-way there. You still need to make it right with society." A police vehicle pulled up to them and two officers got out. "You caused harm to all of Townsville by trying to steal that sweet lady's purse. That's why you're going to do community service."

The prison cell disappeared and the officers put the thief in handcuffs.

"But I can't-" he pleaded, one of the officers leading the him to their police car.

"It's called 'being a good citizen'."

"Thanks, Bubbles," the other officer said. "You're making this city a better place."

Bubbles arrived at school wondering if Buttercup had actually made it there. There were still 15 minutes before the bell. She leisurely strode down the hall with a song in her heart to a chorus of "Hey Bubbles." She smiled at her adorers in turn.

She didn't know why they were giving her so much attention. Sure, she looked cute and smiled at everyone, her makeup was immaculate, and her mom let her get that expensive purse, but it's not like it was Prada or anything.

The cheer squad was at their usual table in the forum. A few of the popular guys hung around to be near girls they liked.

"Hi Bubbles," Dee Dee said, as if they hadn't been texting all night.

"Hi!" Bubbles chirped to everyone, but mostly to her best friend, Dee Dee.

"I heard some new guy beat up Tyler in the halls during class yesterday," Dee Dee said. She was always saving the good gossip until they were all gathered.

"Really?" Marcie said. "I know he went home early."

"Who beat him up?" Katlyn asked.

"My sources tell me it was some nobody," Dee Dee explained. "But I do have a name."

"Who?"

"Tell us!"

Dee Dee loved dragging it out, keeping them all on the edge of their seats.

"Boomer."

"Boomer?" Marcie asked. "Who's that?"

"Yeah," Aimee said "I've never heard that name."

"Like I said 'some nobody'. Apparently no one knows."

"I know who Boomer is," Bubbles offered.

"You do!?"

"Yeah, it's weird that you guys actually don't know who he is."

"Why?" Katlyn asked.

"He's a member of a very popular group." This time it was Bubbles' turn to draw out some information. Her friends were practically drooling with anticipation. Dee Dee looked like she wanted to murder her. Bubbles loved every moment.

"He's a Rowdyruff Boy."

The gasps could be heard from across town.

"There's a third Rowdyruff Boy!?"

"Oh my gosh!"

"Is he as hot as the other two?"

"That's impossible," Dee Dee said. "I would know if there was a third Rowdyruff Boy."

"There is. And I'll prove it." Bubbles began leading the squad down out of the forum. She had no idea where Boomer hung out, he wasn't part of any popular group. In fact, he never usually stayed in one place for very long, and he always seemed to be hanging out by himself. But Bubbles did notice that he was hanging out with Mike Believe at lunch the day before.

Bubbles hadn't talked to Mike since fourth grade, but she did happen to know where his group usually congregated before school. She led the squad to the science and math building and peaked her head into the computer lab. Mike and his friends stood around talking about something that didn't matter. Boomer was with them.

Bubbles trotted up to Boomer. "Hey Boomer." Mike and his friends gawked at her. The girls gathered in the doorway to watch.

"Hey... Bubbles." He was so shy and confused.

"Can you do me a favor?"

"Uh... Yeah..."

"Do that thing with the lightning real quick."

"Right now?"

Bubbles moved aside so her friends could see. "Yeah, real quick."

"Okay..." Lightning jumped up his arm and collected itself into the palm of his hand.

She looked back to her friends. They were all giggling in a tight clump. "Oh, that guy. I keep forgetting about him," Sasha whispered.

"Dude, there are computers in here," Mike said.

"Oops," Bubbles giggled. "Sorry." She turned back to Boomer and smiled at him. "That's all I needed, thanks."

The lightning dissipated and he tilted his head. "No problem."

Bubbles brushed a bang away. "I don't usually do this, but do you want to go on a date?"

"Y- yeah." He looked at her skeptically, but smiled none the less.

"Cool. Pick me up tonight at 7?"

"Yeah, Cool."

"Give me your phone." Bubbles snatched it right out of his hand, programmed her number, and took a silly selfie to attach to it. She handed it back to him. "Text me."

"Y- yeah."

She laughed. "See you then." Bubbles turned to rejoin her friends. "I promise not to trap you in a weird force bubble thing this time," she said over her shoulder so everyone could hear.

He laughed. His friends gawked. Perfect. She walked right back to Dee Dee's side.

"Didn't you used to fight that guy?" Dee Dee said. "Now, you're going out with him, huh?" The other girls giggled again.

"He's a an old crush. You never notice the younger guys."

"What, like my brother and his weird friends?" Dee Dee asked. "No thank you."

* * *

"So Blossom plops down at the table, totally mad, and starts reading that contract you guys signed with the mayor. So I ask 'what does it say?' And she gets all mad at me. Like I didn't listen to a lecture she hasn't given yet. Like I'm too lazy to read it myself."

Boomer snorted and shook his head. "Sounds familiar."

"She would be so outraged if I snatched it out of her hands to read it myself, though she would do the same to me without a second thought. Blossom understands that legal stuff way better than I do anyway. And I don't care what it says, I only care what it means. All the tiny little details don't mean anything to me. So why read it when she can just tell me? Blossom has a need to always be in control anyway, and explaining the situation to me helps her think through it. I'm not lazy and I'm not disinterested. Listening is important and takes focus too."

Boomer nodded and gave her a half-smile.

"Oh! Did I just-" Bubbles moved a strand of hair out of her face and beamed a smile at him. "Sorry about the tirade."

"Don't be. It's so nice to hang out with someone who gets it. You should think about becoming a... uh..." He squeezed his eyes shut trying to remember the word.

Bubbles knew exactly what he was going to say. She had heard it a thousand times, especially from her dad. 'Psychologist.' Everyone thought she'd be good at listening to other people's problems.

"Criminal profiler! That's the one, because you'd be good at figuring out why people do stuff."

Bubbles blushed. She had been thinking about studying to become a programmer, but everyone always wanted her to get into a more girly profession. Becoming a criminal profiler would show them. She had always liked playing detective as a kid. Boomer really seemed to get her. That was so rare among all the guys she had gone on dates with.

She looked back up at him and sipped her drink.

He got embarrassed all of the sudden and looked away.

Bubbles giggled. "You're really cute."

Boomer couldn't stop himself from smiling. "Sorry, Ive never been on a date before."

"This is your first date? You're doing so well. You're such a good listener."

They quieted for a bit when their food came. Bubbles had ordered a meatless spaghetti while Boomer got a cheeseburger and fries. Bubbles' meal was so delicious and the conversation was so pleasant that she almost forgot to warn Boomer about herself.

"So, I should probably tell you," Bubbles started. "I have this thing about dating."

Boomer looked around like he was in trouble. "Oh..."

"I never go out with the same guy twice." She needed to say it out loud to set their expectations, even though it never stopped them from building expectations anyway.

"uh... okay." Boomer tilted his head. "Like, ever?"

"Never." That was Bubbles' rule and she was sticking to it.

"Huh." Boomer furled his eyebrows. "Why?"

Bubbles swirled her pasta looking for a way to explain it. Not enough guys ever asked 'why?'. "I love love. I'm such a sucker for a romantic comedy, you know. But there's stuff I want to do before I fall in love."

"Wow. Okay..." Boomer looked at his remaining fries. "Like what?"

Bubbles smiled. No guy had ever actually asked her that one. "After graduation, I want to adopt a dog and drive around the country, seeing what there is to see, going wherever I feel like." Bubbles' chest fluttered, she could hardly wait.

"...Do whatever you want," Boomer said, wistful. He sighed. "I bet you're going to fall in love with someone great somewhere on that trip."

"Maybe," Bubbles said. "I don't think so."

They finished their meals at the small restaurant downtown. Boomer paid and they got back out to the busy Townsville streets. People walked by, looking at their phones, engrossed in whatever they were doing. Bubbles looked up from the bottom of a canyon of glass and steel and light. Starbursts, white strings adorning the light posts and red brakes on the cars that passed by, flowed around them in the dark blue night.

Boomer took a long breath looking at it with her.

"So, what do you feel like doing now?" Bubbles asked.

Boomer thought for a moment. "I want to watch a sunset."

"It's already nighttime." Bubbles kept her voice nice and sweet so he didn't get offended. "Where are we going to find a sunset?"

Boomer rose up into the air. He smiled with contentment at the sensation. "Come on."

Bubbles launched upwards. The air rushed over her skin and for just a moment, she was weightless, spinning through space. She felt alive.

Boomer swirled around next to her as he went faster and faster. They went over the ocean, breaking the sound barrier and went even faster. Bubbles had no idea where they were going and she liked it. The thrill of spontaneity and surprise filled her.

They found a sunset only a few minutes away and watched while sitting on a tropical island, orange and green on a black ocean.

Boomer looked off into the distance and spoke pensively. "Sometimes, I like to go as fast as I can. None of the bullshit can keep up and time slows down. For a few seconds, I'm free."

"Yeah! I feel like I've been fighting crime for so long, I forgot how good it feels to just... fly."

Boomer smiled for a moment, then it dropped right off his face. "Then you make it all the way around the world and you're back exactly where you started." He looked at the ground.

"That's not true." Her eyes caught his. "You guys aren't exactly bad anymore."

"Pretty sure I am. Kinda stole from that guy, Tyler."

"Yes, but you knew it was wrong and gave it back. That's progress."

"Hey, yeah. You're right." He smiled again.

"Weird what happens when you get away from your supervillain parents." Bubbles laughed and hugged him. He hugged back. He was strong, stronger than any guy she had gone out with before, but he was also gentle. He didn't squeeze like Buttercup always did. His embrace was gentle and kind.

The world fell around them. Bubbles held on while Boomer took them into space and around the moon. It got really cold, but she couldn't have cared less. Boomer shot faster, them both becoming rays of light. Saturn swirled around, rainbows shot through its rings. The stars twinkled and time really did slow down.

They landed in her driveway, still holding hands.

"I had a really good time..." Bubbles said.

Boomer smiled. "Me too..." He ground his shoe into the concrete. "Do you want-"

"But, I don't want to give you the wrong idea."

"Oh..." Boomer deflated. "I thought we were having such a nice time..."

"We are." Bubbles touched his arm. "Best date I've ever been on." She took a step back. "But like I said, there's a lot of stuff I want to do, and a relationship is only going to get in the way."

"Yeah... Stuff." Boomer gave her a melancholy smile. " I get it."

Bubbles' heart ached for him. He was a great guy and it would take someone very special to truly appreciate him. That person just wasn't her.

She put her hand on the back of his head and gave him a good smooch. Then, to her surprise, she gave him another, and another. "Wow..." she said when they finally separated.

"Yeah..." Boomer whispered back.

Bubbles moved toward the front door. "I'll be sure to let all the girls know what a good kisser you are."

He looked at her dreamily. "Goodnight, Bubbles."

She blew him one last kiss and disappeared into the house.

None of her family was up, so she tried to be quiet and floated up the stairs. She first went into the bathroom where she washed off her makeup. She got into her nightie and quickly brushed her hair. As she pulled back the covers on her bed, she found someone already in it.

"Where were you? I've been texting." Blossom asked, groggily.

"I was on a date. I'm not even that late."

"Bubbles, it's 4AM."

"It is?" That couldn't possibly be right. She looked at her phone. She had three texts from Blossom, a bunch from Dee Dee, and the clock said 12:18. "No it's not, it's barely after midnight."

Blossom pointed the screen of her phone at Bubbles. It said 4:07.

"That's not right."

"It is, Bubbles." Blossom sat up. "Who were you out with?"

"A guy."

"Must be some guy if he had you out that late without you realizing it."

Bubbles smiled. "Yeah."

Blossom glanced at Bubbles' phone. "Why does your phone have the wrong time?" Her voice was deeper, awake.

Bubbles hid her phone from view. "I don't know."

Blossom sprang up. "You didn't go into space, did you?"

"You know what, I guess I did."

"Who were you with, Bubbles?"

"In... space?"

"Yes."

"No one."

"Bubbles..." Blossom groaned.

Bubbles sighed. Blossom was going to find out either way. Someone was going to tell her. Even the geekiest geeks and nerdiest nerds heard all about what the popular group was doing. They had no privacy. But that was the burden of being popular. "Boomer," she admitted.

"Boomer!?" Blossom took a big breath to really let Bubbles have it. Then she let it all go, looking to the side. Her lips crumpled not really knowing what to say. She buried all the criticism, truly not needing to control her sister's every action. Bubbles was her own person, a person Blossom trusted.

"He's a really great guy and I had a lot of fun."

"But you're not going to go out with him again?"

Bubbles sighed. "No."

"Good." Blossom finally settled back into Bubbles' bed. Apparently, she was going to stay the night. They hadn't regularly shared a bed in the last few years and Bubbles always missed the company.

"No dating Butch or Brick."

"Barf and yawn." Bubbles rolled her eyes." Brick has one of those faces you want to punch, you know?"

"Thank you for that." Blossom gave Bubbles a short hug and rested into her, falling asleep almost immediately.

Bubbles cuddled into her sister. She hadn't realized how tired she was. It had been a magical night, she wondered what the next day would bring.


	7. Lone Wolf

**Chapter 7**

**Lone Wolf**

**Fifth Grade**

Brick climbed up a pile of broken concrete to get to a skyway that connected two buildings. The old industrial district was a maze of abandoned factories, empty warehouses, and rusted equipment. Old people said the factories used to be the lifeblood of Townsville, whatever that was supposed to mean. The businesses left when the monster attacks intensified back in the '70's. Several buildings had rotting floors and caved-in roofs, lots of ways to get around without being seen and lots of nooks and crannies to hide in. Lead-based paint was a godsend.

He could feel them above his head buzzing around like hornets. They were on their routine patrol, splitting up to police the suburbs, wharf, and university, then coming back together above downtown, leaving trails of light in their wake, visible even during the day, to remind everyone they were watching. Blossom, Bubbles, and Buttercup were looking for a fight, petty crime, unusual creatures, a random villain, anyone they could beat up.

Brick jumped off the roof of a factory into a storage yard. His feet hit the ground harder than he meant to. A resounding 'boom' echoed through the space. Brick chided himself begging them not to notice.

Bubbles broke away from her sisters and flew down the alleys where old ladies got mugged by guys like him. She zig-zaged through them like she didn't care who she ran in to, and for the most part, she was right.

Brick ducked between some crates and trash. It smelled funky and there was something sticky under his shoe, but he couldn't get caught, not without his brothers and not right now. It wasn't that Brick couldn't take Bubbles, he could quickly beat her to a pulp if they went head to head. The thing was, she'd immediately scream for her sisters. And even if he could incapacitate her before she could do that, Bubbles wouldn't rejoin the other girls when they went back into formation a few seconds later. Then, Blossom would retrace Bubbles' path, and in an instant Brick would have two more Powerpuff Girls to fight. He was good, but not that good.

He held his breath, the smell was starting to get to him, he didn't like it at all.

Bubbles twirled between the buildings in sweeping loops, humming a song to herself. Brick felt his hair sweep back in her wake and some of the crates fell over when she passed. She looped down another street and away from him.

Brick continued on his way. He shrugged his shirt out and scraped his shoe on the asphalt to get off whatever had stuck to it. His destination was up ahead, it wouldn't be long.

Word had it that the Gangreen Gang had discovered an entire train car full of pharmaceuticals buried in the dump. In fact, about half of what they found were opioids. Brick didn't know if it was true, but either way, the gang's dealing business had suddenly taken off. Brick didn't want to talk to one of their street-dealers, he needed something special.

They had relocated to the old abandoned pickle factory. Nobody ever went down there anymore. There was no crew outside, too obvious. The Powerpuffs would have seen a bunch of low-lifes and investigated the area.

Brick knocked on a rusty steel door on the side of the building.

Big Billy answered. "Hello."

"I need to talk to your boss."

"Okay..." Billy didn't move out of the way. He stood there with a ridiculous smile on his face. Brick didn't know if it was a power move or if the guy was just that stupid. All Brick knew was that he was in a hurry.

"Who is it, Billy?" Arturo asked.

"Red-hat boy want to see the baws," Billy said.

Brick stepped around Billy. "I need to talk to Ace."

"Shit!" Arturo nearly jumped out of his skin, then quickly recovered. "He's not here."

Brick took a few steps toward Arturo. "Look, I ain't here to start shit, but I can if I have to. I want to talk to Ace." He towered over the guy as much as Billy towered over Brick, but Brick didn't have a dumb smile on his face.

"Fine," Arturo led him to the back of their hideout. "He's back here." He opened a door. "Ace, we've got company."

Ace and Snake were sitting at a table playing cards. Grubber was at a chemistry station in a corner. Snake jumped on the table when he saw Brick, like he was ready to fight. Grubber pointed a propane burner at him, as if that could actually hurt him.. Billy and Arturo kept behind him. There was a gun on the table in front of Ace, useless, just like the rest.

Ace remained exactly where he was. "Brick, my old friend. To what do I owe the honor of this visit."

"I need something. I think you have it."

"Oh, what could the great Brick possibly need from us?" Ace laughed tauntingly, and his crew laughed with him, mocking from all directions.

Brick ignored it and gave Ace a slip of paper.

"Sylo- Cyclo- Buter- Metha-" Ace stammered, sounding through parts of the word. "Doesn't matter. Yeah, I got it. I mean, I don't have any on me, but I can get it for ya's." He leaned back and crossed his arms. "Thing is, you gotta get me somethin'."

Brick grimaced. He should have seen that coming. More shit to do, more time, and he still couldn't use his powers. "What do you want, Ace?"

"See there's this... uh, phone book..." Ace rolled his hand.

"Why do you want a phone book? Planning on making some prank calls?"

"Heh, nah. This one's more like a client list." Ace pulled Snake off the table and motioned for the rest to chill, snapping his fingers and pointing in various directions. His crew went back to what they were doing and he sat back down. "One of Townsvile's biggest suppliers, he got himself pinched by the Powerpuffs. And the cops, they got his phone book. It's a list of all the people he was supplying for. It sure would be nice if we got our hands on that book."

"I get you the phone book, you get me the stuff I need?"

"It's being held at the courthouse evidence locker. I'd get it myself, but them Powerpuffs got this city locked tight. Someone with superpowers could probably get in."

If that was what it was going to take, Brick didn't have a choice. "When I get you the book, you better have the pills for me. I'm not going to another location."

"Yeah, I'll grab 'em while you're out."

"You know what I'm going to do if you don't have actually have it, right?"

"Yeah, yeah, superpowers. Go," Ace said waving him off.

Brick turned and walked past Billy and Arturo. Snake eyed him on the way out.

* * *

There was some kind of parade or whatever in front of city hall, so there was a huge crowd. The Powerpuff Girls were there, talking to the mayor and the mayor's assistant.

Since they were distracted, Brick could blend then do whatever he wanted once he was in the building. He went in and dashed past the metal detector.

The evidence locker was on the fourth floor. Some recruit-level officer sat at a high desk typing something into his computer. "Can I help you?"

"Yeah, I need to get in there." Brick stood on his toes to look taller. He could barely see over the edge of the desk.

The peon looked down at him. "Sorry little boy, are you looking for your momm-"

Brick jumped onto the desk, took the guy's face, and pushed it down into the plastic. No one told him what he could and could not do. He let the guy take a couple ragged breaths before telling him what he wanted. "Open the door."

The officer reached for something on his belt. Brick broke that hand. He didn't care what he was trying to do, it pissed Brick off that he wasn't immediately doing as he said. "Try something else, and I'll break your spine. Open the door. You have three seconds."

The guy whimpered.

"One."

"I need to type into the computer!" The officer interrupted.

"Fine."

The officer pressed a button and there was a loud 'buzz'.

Brick opened the door, dragging the officer with him.

More whimpering came out of the peon. Brick wasn't leaving anything to chance. They went into the locker together, and Brick threw him onto the floor.

"Where are the drug cases?" Brick asked, pushing his weight into the guy's chest.

"I don't know! I've never been in here!" the peon pleaded.

Sadly for him, Brick believed him. He let his eyes glow. "Then you're useless."

"What's going on here?" An elderly officer in a police uniform strode down the stacks like he owned the place. The second he saw Brick, he drew his gun.

Brick lunged forward and crushed it in his hand, then he slammed the officer's head into the ceiling. Bits of plaster rained down, adding to the man's impotency.

Two other officers appeared, their guns already drawn. They fired a single bullet each before Brick dispatched them.

Brick punched the first in the head. Her skull slammed on the metal racks that held the boxes of evidence. The second Brick decided to get creative with. He twisted the officers arm, and with a light jab, broke it at the elbow. Now free of movement, Brick pulled the hand that still held the gun to the officer's head.

Her eyes were terrified, but Brick had known worse. He didn't even want to be there, they had forced him by getting violent first.

He wrapped his finger over hers and pulled the trigger next to her ear. 'BANG'

The bullet went into the radio on her shoulder, yet they all flinched. Brick never understood that, like guns were scary or something. Bullets were nothing. He shot all their radios and threw them into a pile on the floor. They huddled around each other.

"I'm looking for a phone book, he explained, "a list of drug buyers."

They all looked at each other, bewildered by what had just happened.

Brick took a cleansing breath to regain his composure. He took his hat off and smoothed his hair. Normal people scared so easily, but it was hard for scared people to think. One last breath, readjusting his hat and he was ready to continue.

"If you tell me where it is, I won't have to look for it. If I have to look for it, I might get frustrated." He narrowed his eyes at each of the officers. Their mouths and eyes moved but they didn't say anything.

"Fine." Brick picked up the old guy. his name tag indicated he was a captain, someone important. "I like to start at the top. Important people are perfectly willing to let their underlings die to protect themselves. But if you threaten someone important..." Brick let his eyes glow with intensity.

"There." The captain pointed to a box on the rack. That always worked, every single time. "It's in there."

Brick opened the box and found the phone book wrapped in a plastic bag. It was a black leather composition book with strange writing and a bunch of numbers. He stuffed it into his shirt and went back to the captain.

"You have what you came for. Now go," he said.

"A coward. You higher-ups always are." Brick punched the captain in the gut for it. He went down like a bitch and Brick didn't even punch him very hard.

"Why are you doing this?" One of the other officers, one who's nameplate designated her as a sergeant, asked.

"I have my reasons." Brick punched her too, almost feeling bad that they went down so easy. "You should have let me in," he told the peon.

"None of you know who stole this thing," Brick explained. "Could have been anyone. Understand?"

The officers that were still conscious nodded meekly.

Brick left without another word, breaking the door handle so they couldn't get out. He quickly got back to the lobby, he had already wasted enough time.

Through the big windows of the courthouse building, Brick could see the Mayor and his squeeze were gone, as were most of the Powerpuffs. Only Buttercup stood there with her arms crossed, watching the crowd.

Buttercup, the best option. She'd want to fight him one-on-one. She wouldn't call her sisters for help, though they would come see what was going on.

Too risky. No, he needed to get those pills. That was all that mattered. She'd see him if he tried to run and there was no back exit, but he could still blend in to the crowd. He pulled off his cap, and shoved it into his pocket as far as it would go. It was a big red bullseye on his head.

He ran his fingers through his hair. It was long and shiny. Like his hat, it was his signature. He took really good care of it and nobody could take it away from him. It also made him stand out in a crowd. He had to get rid of it if he was going to get by Buttercup.

He went into the lobby's bathroom. There was a mirror with a crack on the corner. He broke it off and went into a bathroom stall. The base of his long hair went between his fingers. With a deep breath, Brick pulled his hair against the edge. The strands came free and he dropped them into the toilet.

A quick check in the mirror and his hair still shined even in the dull florescent light. Brick swallowed, there was only one thing to do and he had to do it fast, he was in enemy territory. He scraped the edge of the mirror against his skull and took off all the hair. He went as quickly as he could without attracting attention. In mere seconds, he was done. He looked like a kid with cancer, but totally different from how he usually did.

Buttercup was still there when Brick made it outside. He went into the crowd, so many adults towering over him. It was annoying, but he could deal with it for a minute.

Brick felt Buttercup's eyes scan over him, but he kept walking like nothing was going on. None of the normal people even looked at him. Buttercup's vision passed through him and moved to the next section of the crowd.

Brick high-tailed it back to the Gangreen Gang's place, putting his hat back on before he knocked. Some new kid Brick didn't recognize answered instead of Big Billy. and there were even more people inside, probably for protection.

Brick found Ace right where he left him. "I got your stuff. Do you have mine?"

"Yeah, I got it." Ace shrugged. "You go first."

Brick pulled the book out of his shirt and placed it on the table in front of Ace.

"Oh! He did get it! Look boys!"

"Yep, that's it alright," Arturo said, thumbing through the pages.

"Now give me mine."

"Give it to him, Snake."

Snake appeared behind Brick and produced a bottle of pills.

Brick took it and unscrewed the top, inspecting the contents. There were 30 of them and from Brick's research, the pills looked right. Of course if they weren't, Brick would hunt each and every one of them down. "What am I supposed to do next month?" he asked.

"Brick, if this pans out you just made me a shit-ton of money. I'd offer you a partnership, but we're full up. So, how's about this, next month I'll give you my entire supply of that stuff. Should last you a good five years. Deal?" Ace stuck his hand out to shake.

Brick shook his hand. Five years of not having to worry about this. By then he could figure something out.

Ace leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms. "Nice doin' business with yuz'. Now if you don't mind, we got a card game to get back to." he gave a half-smile.

Brick started on his way back. It was getting late and he was hungry, but he had what he needed, that was what mattered. He couldn't see or hear the Powerpuffs flying around, they must have gone home for the day, but he didn't want to press his luck. The sidewalks were probably fine as long as he didn't do anything to stand out.

He walked down Mercer Street toward home. The buildings felt huge. It was like he was seeing them for the first time. He was always so used to seeing them from way above, but from the ground, they were so tall. Brick wondered if the normal humans ever felt like that.

"Well, well, well, What do we have here? Looks like I caught me a Rowdyruff."

Brick sighed, the voice breaking through his thoughts and giving him a headache. This was what he was trying to avoid by not using his powers. He put the pill bottle into his sweatshirt pocket and turned around to meet his challenger. "What do you want, Blossom?"

Blossom stood tall and raised her chin with a smile. "Nothing."

Buttercup and then Bubbles flew in from wherever they were to join their sister. Brick didn't take his eyes off of Blossom while they surrounded him.

"Uh oh. Too late." Blossom chuckled. "We got you. You're going to jail."

Brick growled. He was not going to jail, not ever. There'd be no one to break him out.

"Ya gonna cry?" Buttercup taunted. Bubbles and Blossom giggled like girls always did, like they were making fun of him.

Of course it would take all three Powerpuff Girls to take him down. They were always weaker than him and his boys. And he was going to make them hurt for it.

"It didn't work that time," Blossom said.

"Doesn't matter, we're still gonna beat you up," Buttercup said.

"W- why?" Bubbles asked. "Why are we beating him up?"

Buttercup rolled her eyes and put her fists on her hips. "Cuz he's a bad guy."

Brick couldn't argue that, he was bad, bad as they come.

"And he needs to be punished." Blossom spoke in that high and mighty voice, god he hated her.

"We don't beat up Mojo or Princess despite all they've done..." Bubbles argued weakly. "It's not right."

"Not doing anything, huh? What's that?" Blossom pointed to the bottle in Brick's sweatshirt pocket.

"None of your business!" Brick snapped, pivoting his sweatshirt behind his back so they couldn't see it with their x-ray vision. The girls recoiled. He lost his cool for a second. Brick took a controlled breath. He needed to get back, and getting beaten up wasn't going to help him do that.

"The only reason he wouldn't tell us is because he has something to hide," Buttercup argued.

"It's obviously drugs," Blossom said. "And having drugs is against the law."

"I say we confiscate them." Buttercup came at him first with a kick. Brick sidestepped and punched her into Bubbles.

Blossom's fist broke across his face before he could react. Reality felt like it split through his skull.

Brick saw pink and unleashed his eyebeams, barbecuing Blossom.

Buttercup came back with a gut punch, Bubbles kicked him, and he went down. He couldn't breathe and used his arms to block their hits to his face.

They stopped beating on him for Blossom to reach into his sweatshirt pocket. Her fingers were like a claw ripping him open. She grasped at the pill bottle.

Brick gripped her wrist to stop her when Bubbles punched him in the face. Buttercup pinned his arms and Blossom reached in.

They were going to take it. He couldn't fail. Not now, not when he was so close.

The sky was red. Every part of his body hurt and the pain wouldn't stop. A demon stuck her claw through his belly, ripping him apart, over and over.

Brick cried out and his skin exploded. Everything was fire and the Powerpuff girls were blasted away.

He was back up, floating above a crater. Smoke rose into the darkening sky and dirt rained down around him.

One chance, Brick made sure the pills were still secure and took off toward his brothers. He had no idea how he did that explosion thing, but he didn't have time to think about it. It was a straight line to the old car factory and the red streak he left in the air was a dead giveaway. He made a hard left and landed to double back. He made it to his hideout in time to see the girls hot on his trail.

"Where'd he go?"

"Search for him!"

"No time. He could be anywhere in the city by now!" They used their x-ray vision to look for him in the wrong direction.

Satisfied they weren't going to find him, he descended the steps into an old monster bunker the people used to use in the olden days. It was made of steel and concrete, x-ray vision wouldn't work there, the Powerpuff Girls would never find him. It was dusty and the floor was always wet, but it was safe. The door scraped open.

Butch and Boomer were huddled in a corner.

Butch shook, his head swung back and forth, and his shoulders were permanently tensed at his ears. Boomer held him from behind, bite marks on his arms where Butch tried to chew his way out.

"I got your medicine, Butch." Brick opened the bottle and fished out a pill.

"What took you so long?" Boomer asked.

"I got held up by the Powerpuffs. Hold him still."

Boomer held on tighter while Brick put the pill near Butch's lips. "Butch, open your mouth."

Butch swung his head the other way. "NO! STOP!" He thrashed around trying to get Boomer off of him, chewing his tongue. He kicked at Brick.

"It's over, you're okay," Boomer said.

Butch bit into Boomer's arm as hard as he could. Boomer saw it coming and made his skin tougher. Butch's front teeth cracked and broke right out of his mouth. He screamed with jagged bits of bone sticking out of his face.

"Calm him down!"

"What do you want me to do, sing him a song?"

Brick clenched his jaw and pinched Butch's nose.

"BRICK! HELP!" Butch pleaded, blood pouring out of the empty holes in his gums and partially chewed off tongue. "MAKE THEM STOP! PLEASE MAKE IT STOP!" He sucked air in rapid breaths, like his lungs couldn't get enough.

Brick stuck the pill into Butch's mouth and closed it. He squeezed Butch's jaw shit with one hand and massaged his throat with the other. "Swallow, Butch, fucking swallow."

Butch swallowed, one eye half open, pleading with Brick to make the torture stop, as if Brick could have stopped it. Butch went limp and Boomer and Brick let go of him.

Brick collapsed and squeezed his temples. Boomer walked around to get some distance from what had happened. What a fucking day.

"Did they beat you up?" Boomer asked.

Brick turned away. His body hurt from his beating, but he shrugged it off. "Yeah."

"We thought you ditched us for good."

Brick's teeth clenched and his hand went to his bald head. He reminded himself to kick both their asses for thinking that he would leave them.

"Is it going to work?" Boomer asked.

Butch sobbed in the corner, his shakes calmed to a persistent shiver. The pill was starting to affect him.

Brick wished he could make Butch forget. He wished they could all forget. But it was finally over, at least until the next time they died. Hell would always be waiting for them.


End file.
